NSSA SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE

OPEN SEASON EVENT #1

SIX STAR RATED

HUNTINGTON STREET, HUNTINGTON BEACH

SEPTEMBER 19-20, 2009

CONDITIONS: Super fun shoulder to head high lefts and rights.

Written by: Conner Coffin

TREVOR THORNTON TAKES HIS FIRST OPEN WIN!

WWWOOOHOOO!!!! Southwest Conference Open Season event number one went loony down at Huntington Street in the notorious land of Huntington Beach. Many of you may be wondering where Huntington Street is (and so were many of us when we were trying to find the comp Saturday morning), but it is basically right in front of the Waterfront Hilton hotel. Once we found the contest site, we were greeted by super fun shoulder with the occasional head high set. It was peaky, rippable, and super fun, a bit inconsistent at times but plenty of waves to go around. By the time the finals rolled around on Sunday afternoon the tide had dropped and there were some super fun sets.

The finals kicked off on Sunday afternoon with the Open Longboard where Shaun Thompson (no not the South African one), was in fine form. He perched himself on the nose a few times to post a combined heat score of 13.33. This was enough to take home some valuable double A points for the first event of the season.

Next up was the Open Men’s final. The final consisted of Jake Halstead, Christian Saenz who is the defending conference champ, Derrick Disney, and myself. Everyone had been ripping all weekend and it was clear that it would be a battle. I got lucky and right in the beginning of the heat a nice left came right to me. I had opted to sit a bit further down the beach where I had seen some nice corners. It paid off and I got an 8.0 on my first wave. I stuck to my plan while everyone else sat a bit further up the beach. Everyone knows that I tend to prefer my backside in a heat. With the scoring potential being mainly on the lefts, it played to my advantage. Another really good set wave came right to me. I got an 8.93 on this really good left. Anyone else who caught this wave would have gotten a huge score so I was just lucky to be in the spot for it. My heat total ended up being the highest of the event, but not by a big margin. Jake and Christian blew up in a few previous heats and had some really high scores as well. Jake, Christian, and Derrick were ripping and definitely pushing everyone to surf their best!

Jake Halstead did double duty and also made the Open Juniors final. Also making the final was Parker Coffin, Trevor Thornton, and Kanoa Igarashi who also doubled up making the Open Boys final as well. Trevor has been ripping lately! He made a board change to Timmy Patterson over the summer and he sure seems to be feeling the difference. He was actually riding one of Timmy Reyes boards in the contest. Trevor threaded his Timmy through a few nice waves throughout the final. He opened strong with a 6.5 and quickly backed it up with a 5.73. This was enough to seal the deal because the three other finalists seem to be quite out of sync throughout the heat. “It feels really good to win my first event,” Trevor said after the final. “There were a couple fun lefts and I just tried to get a couple of good set waves and have fun. I switched over to Timmy Patterson boards and he gave me one of Timmy Reyes old boards and it’s been magic for me.” The win was Trevor’s first in the Open Season and I’m sure we will be seeing more of him in the winner’s circle. “I’m just happy I won because the contest is double points and I’m going to try hard to win the season,” Trevor said. Kanoa and Jake tied for the highest scoring wave of the Juniors division, which was a 9.0. Both of them were looking on point throughout the event but couldn’t quite put it together in the finals.

JAKE MARSHALL CLAIMS THE HEAVY OPEN BOYS FINAL!

The Open Boys final was an interesting affair. In the opening minutes, mini super shredder Kanoa obtained an interference and this opened the door for the rest of the finalists. Jake Marshall capitalized on the opportunity and dropped a 6.17 and a 4.67 to take the win over the field. “Conditions for the final were hard, it’s super windy, the waves were mixed up and bumpy and there was a gnarly rip current,” Jake said after his breakthrough victory.  “Right off the bat in the final, Kanoa and I went on the same wave and he got called on an interference. I got two really good waves in the first five minutes and those turned out to be the winning scores. I’ve been melting down in the finals of the last couple events, so it felt good to get some good scores in this event and then a great bonus to win my first event in the Open Boys.” Congrats to Jake for his first ever win in the Open Boys division! Colin Deveze has been a contest addict this season doing Southwest Open, Southwest Explorer and Gold Coast and it sure has been paying off. By getting his fix he nearly won the Open Boys final. Look for Kanoa and a lot of the Open Boys to come back strong in the next event. “The competition is tougher this year,” Jake said. “Kanoa rips so hard and just to beat him is an accomplishment. Colin Deveze has been surfing a lot of contests and he has really stepped it up. He almost got me at the last second of the final where I just squeaked by him by a 0.24. Everyone has improved over the summer so it’s going to be a very competitive year.”    

THE SOUTHWEST MINI GROMS!

Cole Houshmand, Eithan Osborne, Sam Wickwire, Tyler Gunter, Nicholas Marshall, Ryland Rubens. 

Tyler Gunter, the grom from nearby Newport, took down the Mini Grom final. He won with a solid two-wave total of 10.83. When you’re a Mini Grom every wave is overhead, so some of the sets were probably triple overhead for little Tyler and all the grom finalists. As for Tyler, he is use to this though because he charges Newport every day. He is fearless! In his quarterfinal heat he went nuts and posted an 8.17 and a 7.5. This was the highest Mini Grom heat score of the contest. All of the groms were shredding and going for broke in the challenging conditions so it looks like there are going to be some great heat battles this season.

In the Womens Division it was Alexa Franz who took her first ever Open women’s event win. She beat the National Champ Lakey Peterson, who has been on a tear lately, in a close final. Alexa edged out Lakey with an 11.17 total to Lakey’s 9.67 total. Congrats to Alexa! Look for Lakey to come back strong next weekend when we all head down to Oceanside for Open Season stop #2. Everyone has been hyping up some swell for this coming weekend…but we’ll see. I try to always have low expectations so that if it is bad you’re not bummed and if it’s fun then your pumped! If my expectations are too high I am very rarely satisfied. Anyways, I’m rambling now…have a good week - Conner.

COMING UP IN CALI:  The Southwest Conference Open Season will continue with event #2 on September 26-27 at Oceanside South Jetty. The Southwest Conference will return to Surf City with back-to-back action with Explorer event #2 at Golden West Street in Huntington Beach on October 3-4 and Open Season event #3 on the south side of Huntington Beach Pier on October 10-11. 

THE SCOREBOARD

RESULTS

SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE OPEN SEASON EVENT #1

HUNTINGTON STREET, HUNTINGTON BEACH

OPEN MENS

1. Conner Coffin-Santa Barbara 16.93

2. Christian Saenz-Huntington Beach 12.67

3. Derrick Disney-Cardiff by the Sea 12.34

4. Jake Halstead-La Jolla 10.90

OPEN JUNIORS

1. Trevor Thornton-San Clemente 12.23

2. Kanoa Igarashi-Huntington Beach 10.00

3. Jake Halstead-La Jolla 9.57

4. Parker Coffin-Santa Barbara 9.47

OPEN BOYS

1. Jake Marshall-Encinitas 10.84

2. Colin Deveze-San Clemente 10.60

3. Kanoa Igarashi-Huntington Beach 10.25

4. Jacob Davis-Capistrano Beach 8.94

5. Corey Colapinto-San Clemente 6.13

6. Griffin Colapinto-San Clemente 3.83

OPEN MINI GROMS  

1. Tyler Gunter-Newport Beach 10.83

2. Sam Wickwire-Seal Beach 9.17

3. Ryland Rubens-San Diego 8.10

4. Cole Houshmand-San Clemente 6.07

5. Eithan Osborne-Ventura 5.13

6. Nicholas Marshall-Encinitas 4.70

OPEN WOMENS  

1. Alexa Frantz-La Jolla 11.17

2. Lakey Peterson-Santa Barbara 9.67

3. Chandler Parr-Santa Monica 7.37

4. Taylor Pitz-Laguna Beach 6.86

OPEN LONGBOARD 

1. Shaun Thompson-Huntington Beach 13.33

2. Jason Schechter-San Diego 9.13

3. Justin Brand-Seal Beach 7.97

4. Bryn Lutz-Carlsbad 5.37

5. Nathan Thompson-Huntington Beach 4.30

6. Stephanie Schechter-San Diego 4.03.