Wow! what a great weekend for High School competitive surfing!! We witnessed some of the most intense games of the year.

Here are some of my highlights:

Newport versus Satellite High with Chase Wilson looking like a WCT pro and getting the first 10 point ride in NSL High School surfing history!! With judges Damien Hobgood, Micah Byrne, Jason Bennett, and Head Judge Willy Smith, that is legit!!

Dane Zaun’s clutch 9.5 in the bottom of the 3rd period of the semi’s against Newport Harbor to put his team in the final showed that deep determination it takes to be a winner in "The Game" format. And then the final game that went to overtime.

Cooper Jones clutch 8.5 in the bottom of the 3rd period and J.D Lewis’ super clutch last wave with 10 seconds left in the game to tie it up and take it to overtime had the whole beach buzzing.  But it was Mira Costa led by Senior and future pro surfing star Dane Zaun in O.T. that sealed the deal.

Congratulations to Mira Costa High School! They are the Red Bull Riders Cup 09 Champions and the best surfing high school in continental United States.

Next year we hope to include more high schools including Hawaii.

This season was a great success!! Thanks to all the pro surfers that helped out in every region, thanks to all the coaches, teachers, and helpers, thanks to Red Bull and all their people, Red Bull Girls for handing out trophies and hugging the groms, Thanks to Allisports.com for everything and thanks to my staff at the NSL, you guys are the best!!

Extra special thanks to Shaun Burrell for being the man!

peace and see  you all next year!!!

commissioner of NSL

Brad Gerlach

PS. Check out this video of Mira Costa pre-claiming the title after winning the South Bay regional:

A rematch of last year’s nail biter when Kokoro Tamatsuri won The Game, getting an 8 point ride with 1 second remaining. 

Conner Coffin, Carp’s version of a Lebron James, was home sick as a dog.  Carpenteria would have to dig deep to win today.

Malibu won the toss, and took the top of the order.  Skylar Lawson the freshman sub gets put in the game with 30 seconds left in the first period and comes up huge with a 7.0 score!  And throws a fist pump!  Hahaha awesome!  This is the stuff I was thinking of when I wrote the rulebook.  7’s were not easy to come by either as the judging panel was led by 3 time World Champion Tom Curren.

Chandler Parr, the lone girl in The Game, went big with a 6.0.  The goofy-footed Parr ripped the hell out of a left with three solid turns.  Impressive but not unexpected, as she was MVP yesterday, a first in NSL history.

Malibu posted a whopping 24 points in the first period and never looked back.  The coaching was on point today with the team of Rich Lawson (football and golf coach) and Pascal Stansfield, LA Arc Angels pro surfer.

Conrad Carr was totally dominant today.  This was Conrad’s 3rd year playing the Game and his experience and ability to perform under pressure gives him a serious future if he wants it.  I think Conrad had a 24.5 point Game.

The big story today was Skylar Lawson.  He was again subbed into the Game in the 3rd period and came up with another blitzing 7.  He was awarded MVP today.  It is the first time in NSL history a sub won this award and the first time a freshman has won it too!  Wow! 

Malibu is off to the National Championships at Upper Trestles June 6-7.   With some rhythm!  MTV2 will be following the Malibu Sharks in their daily lives for an upcoming 6 show series.

Thanks to: Red Bull!  Allisports.com!  Outdoor event specialist!  Yeah
Dante, Shane, and Sin!  Dave Letinsky and Mr. Tamatsuri for coaching
Santa Barbara!

And to all the pro’s that helped out this week in Ventura.

Ventura Pelicanos: Tom Curren, Nate Curran, Timmy Curran, Adam Virs,
Sean Hayes, Matt and Mike McCabe, Parker Coffin.

LA Arc Angels: Pascal Stansfield, Justin Swartz, Shaun Burrell, Jamie
Meistrall, Greg Browning.

San Diego Sea Lions: Zach Keenan, Jeremy Sherwin.

OC Octopus: Micah Byrne, Jesse Evans.

Here’s to bringing the pro games back!!!  We should make bumper
sticker’s that say “honk if you want the Cali Cup back” hahahaha!

See ya in Florida next week for stop 3 of the Red Bull Riders Cup.
 

Everyone was here today.  Tom Curren, Timmy Curran, Nathaniel Curran, Adam Virs, Sean Hayes, Matt and Mike McCabe, Pascal Stansfield and NSL Staff: Shaun Burrell, Zach Keenan, Jeremy Sherwin, Justin Swartz, Micah Byrne, Jesse Evans, Dave Shauber.

The kids were into it too!  It was rad to see little Taylor Curran surfing the game for the first time.  He watched his older brothers surf on Ventura’s Pelicanos team in ‘04 and ‘05 and finally got his chance today!  Timmy was saying how excited his little brother was about competing in The Game here at C St.  That was cool to hear.

Malibu’s Conrad Carr was ripping!  This is the 3rd year I’ve had a chance to see him surf and grow.  He had the highest scoring wave of the game in the 3rd period.  Clutch!

Chandler Parr blew minds today.  With Malibu’s win she is the first girl to win MVP in NSL history!  So epic!  She totally ripped today. There was another girl on Ventura’s team who surfed well too, Catherine Clark.  She had the chance to win The Game and did a nice snap but couldn’t finish with her last turn… but she’ll be back.

Goofy footer Sam Reagan, the highest scoring surfer for Ventura, was surfing great riding a Channel Islands Biscuit.  He was so smooth and has a fluid style, so much so that commentator’s Virs and Miestrell were dubbing him Rob Machado.  Watch out for him as he has a great future with a pro surfer brother Spencer Reagan and a supportive Dad.

Pro surfer Sean Hayes was into it today as Ventura’s head coach.  Great guy and a great surfer who is cut out to be a leader and coach.  Thanks so much Sean!

After The Game everyone was talking about what a close game it was and how it had everyone on the edge of their seat!  Funny how the game works like that with the waves only being 1-2 feet… I must say it was one of the greatest games we’ve ever watched.

Thanks to the Red Bull, Allisports.com, and NSL staff, for supporting High School Surfing.  Everyone is psyched for tomorrow’s Championship Game!

Carpenteria High’s Team is lead by Conner Coffin and Kokoro Tamatsuri.

They are up against newcomers Santa Barbara High School, who prove to be quite worthy challengers.  Coached by Mr. Tamatsuri (Kokoro’s dad), SB High comes out of the gates swinging!

Everyone was very impressed with SB’s will to win.  All 4 starters surfed well and they may have beaten the other teams with their scores.  But it’s just too hard when you have a world class surfer on your team with Conner Coffin.  He’s on his way Thursday to Ecuador for the Junior World Titles and has a serious chance of coming back with that title.

The game was won with 5 minutes remaining in the 3rd period.

Carpenteria moves to the Regional Final Thursday.

Thanks to everyone for helping out.  Thanks OES for setting it all up and working on the scoreboard to make it easy to follow.

See ya tomorrow.

We also believe that a score can be debated.  That’s why we also have professional surfers as Referee’s.  Here in Ventura Jeremy Sherwin and Justin Swartz stand next to the coaches during the game to call timeouts, sub in players, or refute scores.  These coaches, who are pro surfers themselves, must be talking with a respected peer or this referee situation would not work.  The Ref’s are in walkie talkie communication with the head judge, so if the Ref doesn’t like the score he communicates it with the head judge or game director (pro surfer as well).  This sometimes helps the head judge plead his case with the judges who may be a little off.

The Game format has checks and balances. That is why it works so well.

It was exciting to be there! We have had great success with The Games in Santa Cruz and the surfers take it very seriously. A pretty interesting dynamic, but it’s not fun unless it’s serious.

It warms my heart to see all the local pros like Rat Boy, Matt Rockhold, Joey Hudson, Homer Henard, Tyler Fox, Kyle Buthman, and Pete Mel coaching the kids. Basically all Santa Cruz Stormriders, helping seed the future talent pool up north.

It’s great to see the kids fired up on competing in “The Game” format. It is also cool to have an all pro staff: Shaun Burrell runs the show, on top of commentating Omar Etcheverry organized all the teams and brought out the judges: Peter Garaway, Bud Freitas, Austin Smith Ford, TJ Mikus, and Matt Myers. Zach Keenan directs, Jeremy Sherwin as Referee.

I also got to see my old pal Adam Replogle rooting for the underdog Aptos. It was great to be around such a great group of surfers who showed pride in their teams and were competitive and stoked to be there.

Highlights for me were:

-Noah Wegrich 9.6 in the bottom of 3rd period to win the Red Bull Riders Cup Santa Cruz Regional Championships. He was visibly stoked. It would be fun to be a fly on the wall the next day at school while his friends were talking about how clutch he was and what a rad surfer he is etc…
-Seeing all my friends who rip up there helping the kids.
-Austin Smith Ford’s brutal and hilarious commentary.
-Shaun Burns surfing.
-Tyler Moorish surfing.
-Late night fun with Red Bull, Alli, and NSL staff Wed night.
-Fun waves and great weather.
-Eating at Aloha Grill. Thanks Timmy!
-And just as many girls at the Championship Game as guys! Let’s face it, it’s lot more fun to watch a sporting event with girls around cheering!

Good luck to Aptos High School in the Championships at Upper Trestles June 6-7!

Special Thanks:
Timmy from Aloha Grill,
Atul and Mandy from Alli
Dante Giuliano and his crew, Kieran Horn for letting me borrow his board.
Kim Clary from The Core, Small talk Steve (SOS)

So long Santa Cruz, See you all next year.