Splitting Time Between Roles, Cairns Still Excels in the Surf

Alisa Cairns speaks with the voice of authority. The director of events for Bluetorch, a new media company that covers surfing, among other sports, is the source pro surfers tap before heading off to World Championship Tour events at exotic locales such as Portugal, Australia and France.

Need to know where to get a decent hotel? How to get to the event? Whether the drinking water is safe? Cairns, a former world tour surfer, has the answers.

But sometimes Cairns wishes she was the one getting ready to take one more invigorating trip to some faraway paradise.

“It’s really hard to talk to someone who’s heading off to France,” said Cairns, a Laguna Beach resident who left the world tour in 1994. “I loved that part of the tour. To go hang out in France for six weeks and wait for the tide to be just right and surf your heats and practice--it’s such a great life. That’s the kind of thing I miss.”

Cairns misses the trips, but she can’t say she misses the surfing. After all, she has been competing--and faring well--this week in the U.S. Open women’s event at the Huntington Beach Pier. She has advanced to today’s round, which features the 32 remaining competitors, and is paired in a heat with Brazilian star Tita Tavares.

Cairns, 35, a former world amateur champion who rose to as high as fourth in the world in 1985, has been able to hold her own competing mainly against surfers who are in their 20s and some as young as 15.

“I think women can stay competitive maybe longer than the men,” Cairns said. “I don’t really feel like I’m at a competitive disadvantage as far as age. It’s more because I can’t focus on it.”

She hasn’t been able to focus on surfing because of her Bluetorch responsibilities, which keep her occupied even on the days she competes. Whenever she gets a free moment from all the nagging surfers, media and hangers-on who have made her trailer office a second home, Cairns updates draw sheets and helps athletes register for events around the world.

Ian Cairns, Alisa’s husband and the vice president of events for Bluetorch, said the thing that impresses him most about Alisa is “her empathy for every individual surfer, how much she cares for each and every person. There’s like 1,000 people in this thing, and she cares for every person and how they’re doing. She knows about them and their lives. She’s stoked when they win and disappointed [when they lose].”

Cairns still excels at small events. She was in the finals last year at the Rusty Newport Pro, a World Qualifying Series event, and continues to dominate local events.

“[Before], my focus was really on the surfing,” Cairns said. “Now it’s like, ‘OK, if I get through a few heats, make it into the money round, it’s a fun little bonus.’

“It’s weird when I beat people because all they’re doing is 100% focusing on that. Sometimes it does amaze me that I can still hold my own.”

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Tim Reyes of Huntington Beach advanced to today’s main draw at the U.S. Open men’s event after surviving two qualifying heats Tuesday.

After placing second in his final heat of the day, which included winner Kaipo Jaquias of Hawaii, the 18-year-old Reyes was greeted on the beach by his mom Julie. Reyes, who has already advanced one round further than last year, might have won the heat had he managed to stay on his board for what would have been a high-scoring wave.

“I wasn’t satisfied with my surfing,” said Reyes, who graduated from Edison High in June. “I wish I could have held onto those [waves]. I just pushed it too hard.”

Other Orange County surfers who advanced into the main draw were Wyatt Simmons, Jeff Deffenbaugh and Danny Nichols--all from Huntington Beach.

*

Sunny Garcia apologized Monday to Michael Campbell and the Assn. of Surfing Professionals after calling Campbell “pathetic” a day earlier when Campbell edged Garcia to win the Bluetorch Pro.

Garcia, angered by Campbell’s comments in an Australian magazine that American surfers were “pathetic,” lobbed a more personal attack at Campbell by calling him “pathetic” for “sitting on the shoulder” at Banzai Pipeline.

Monday, Garcia’s stance had softened considerably. “I let my temper get the best of me and would like to say sorry to Mick and the association that I represent because I have done the sport injustice for this outburst,” Garcia said in a statement. “There has never been any personal problem between Mick and I, and I’ve even invited him to stay at my house in Hawaii before. Mick surfed a great final and I was bitter for losing.”

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Pro Surfing

*What: $300,000 action sports festival features men’s surfing with the $100,000 U.S. Open of Surfing, women’s surfing with the $25,000 U.S. Open of Women, plus juniors’ surfing, longboarding, bodyboarding, BMX biking, skateboarding, in-line skating, a beach exposition and outdoor concerts. Wakeboarding and freestyle motocross will take place at Lake Elsinore.

* Where: South side of Huntington Beach Pier

* When: Today through Sunday. Women’s semifinals, final (1:50 p.m.) on Saturday; men’s quarterfinals, semifinals and final (1 p.m.) on Sunday.

* Today’s schedule: 7 a.m.-12:20 p.m.--men’s surfing, Round of 160, Heats 1-16; 12:20-3--women’s surfing, Round 3, Heats 1-8; 3-5:40--juniors’ surfing, Round 3, Heats 1-8.

* Admission: Free.

* Parking: Available at city structure on corner of Main and Olive streets.

* Webcast: Live on www.bluetorch.com

* Information: (949) 215-8000