Harbor High tops Aptos High

By NSL • April 10, 2008

Harbor High beats Aptos High in Riders Cup Regional Game semi #2

PLEASURE POINT — In the dying minutes of regulation, Cheyne Pearson managed to conjure up a nice little ride from a stingy ocean, and Harbor High defeated Aptos 56-53.7 with three minutes, 58 seconds remaining in the semifinals of the Red Bull Riders Cup Santa Cruz regional.

Pearson led all surfers in Wednesday’s game at the Hook with a total individual score of 17.2, followed closely by teammate Bjorn Temple who netted a total of 16 points. Aptos was led by Brandon Barnes with 15.7.

"We had Cheyne Pearson go big for us," said pro surfer and Harbor coach Homer Henard. "I’m stoked on my surfers. They all rose to the occasion and did what they needed to do. Hats off to all the groms from Harbor."

Harbor will face Soquel in the Santa Cruz regional final at 4 p.m. today at Pleasure Point.

The winner will qualify for the RBRC national finals in San Onofre, June 13-15, and the chance to be crowned the best high school surf team in the country.

The Knights, led by game MVP Jason Hdez, defeated Santa Cruz 70.99-69.5 in a dramatic semifinal that was decided in overtime Tuesday. It was the first overtime game in RBRC history.

Coming off a 52.87-44.05 victory over Scotts Valley on Monday in the opening round of the tournament, Aptos was feeling confident heading into their semifinal match. Harbor was seeded into the semifinals by virtue of its current first-place ranking in the Interscholastic Surfing Federation.

With an already small and fading northwest swell struggling to push any waves bigger than waist high [on the grom scale] around the Hook, it was clear that the winning team would be the one who managed to capitalize on the few surfable waves that rolled through.

After winning the coin toss, Aptos elected to surf first. Although the Mariners had no way of knowing it, this decision proved to be a crucial mistake.

Rideable waves were few and far between as the ocean went almost completely flat for Aptos in the top of the first period. The Mariners struggled to simply get each of their four surfers any type of wave score.

The ocean smiled upon Harbor, though, when a rare set of four good waves rolled through right as the horn sounded for the beginning of their half of the first period.

Temple ripped the best wave of the heat all the way to the inside, linking multiple carving turns and lip bashes for an 8.2, the highest single-wave score of the day. The rest of the Pirates followed suit and the team finished the first period with a combined 23.9, the highest-scoring period by any team in the Santa Cruz regional thus far. At the end of first, Harbor enjoyed a solid 23.9 to 15.4 lead over the Mariners.

"We liked starting second because it gave us time to get in rhythm with the sets," Henard said. "We had a nice set of waves roll through right at the beginning of our half of the first. Our use of timeouts was also critical due to how small the waves were today."

The pattern continued into the second period, with Aptos suffering from lack of waves and having to burn timeouts. Meanwhile, Harbor used its timeouts wisely, waiting out flat spells and getting solid scores from all four surfers. At the end of two, the Pirates were riding a 13.6 point lead.

"This thing is probably going to end early," game manager Shaun Burrell said at that time. "[Aptos] would have to surf an almost perfect round just to catch back up."

But the Mariners refused to go away quietly, despite their poor luck with the sets. They fired back with a solid 7.2 from Barnes and a pair of 6.3s from Aaron Godfrey and Noah Wegrich. Aptos racked up 23.6 points in the top half of the third period to reclaim the lead.

Harbor then entered the water in the bottom of the third and final period down 43.7-53.7, and needing anything above 10 points to win the match.

"We had a very slim lead," Aptos’ celebrity surf coach Tyler Fox said. "We were praying for no waves, but they got just enough for what they needed. Once again, it came down to who got the waves in their heat."

Harbor opened with a short ride by Cody Frank for a 3.3, followed by a couple small scores of 1.5. With no waves coming through and still down by six, Harbor decided to use its last timeout with 6:30 left. With time running out and Harbor still in need of 2.8 points to take the win, Pearson got the wave he needed. He sped down the line and linked together two solid cracks off the lip. The Pirates’ dugout erupted and the judges awarded Pearson with a 4.0, sealing the victory.

"I knew I needed a 3.2 and I was going to get it any way I could," Pearson said. "When I managed to get those two turns in I was really relieved."

In addition to riding the winning wave of the game, Pearson was awarded Most Radical Maneuver for his tailslide 360 early in the game. Temple was named the game’s MVP for his total individual score of 16 and timely wave scores.

"It feels good," Temple said. "I just got lucky and got the wave of the [first] heat. Our strategy was just to try and get all around points. It’s a lot easier to get 5s all around instead of just two 7s."

For more surfing coverage, check out Leo Maxam’s blog at www.santacruzlive.com/blogs/surf.