USA Championships this week at the pier
August 19th, 2008, 6:38 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Shawn Price
Things in Beijing probably will overshadow things in Huntington Beach this weekend. But the center of the universe will be the pier for a lot of the best young surfers in the U.S. when they hit the water for the 2008 USA Championships.
Some of those young surfers will join the U.S. team for the first time, for others, like Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue or San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino, remaining a member of the U.S. Surf team is job number one. Who else might return and how good they’ll be is a key question facing head coach Joey Buran.
After reaching the medal stand last May at the World Junior Surfing Championships in France, Buran will have a men’s team still developing and a women’s team that could be frightfully thin. So despite the hope that was created in France, there’s reason for concern. Not that ever optimistic Buran is bothered much.
“In the Boys Under 16, we get stronger,” Buran says acknowledging the return of Andino, Conner Coffin, Luke Davis, and Evan Geiselman among others. “It’s the strength of our team. It should be one of the best in the world. We also keep Nat Young and Andrew Doheny moves up (to Boys Under 18) and he’s fantastic. But the girls take a big hit.”
He says Sage Erickson will be particularly hard to replace. But Buran’s done what most thought near impossible and got Hawaiians interested in his program. Nage Melamed for the girl’s team and Makai McNamara and Luke Hitchcock are among the islanders with high expectations on them.
So what he expects to see this weekend is clear, but the decisions he will still have to make are not easy ones.
“There’s people you know and people on the bubble. I would expect those team members to surf better here than they did in France and significantly better than they did when they made the team last year. No one should be straight lining. There could be some surprises, but I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of them.
It’s the last few spots on the roster that require the gut feelings. “There’s much less of a gray area. It’s easier in that I know what I’m looking for, but harder in knowing the emotion of it. In being a parent myself.”
The 2008 USA Championships begain at 8 a.m. daily, Wednesday through Sunday. The awards presentation and announcement of the U.S. team will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
