Ten years of watching surfers will lead you to conclusions.

One of them is that Orange County is loaded with good surfers. I mean really fine, world class surfers. Another is that they don’t get enough recognition for simply being athletes. They might sell a lot of boardshorts or look great in the magazines or might even be called artists. But virtually none of them are given enough credit for what they accomplish physically in the water.

Hence, my very first shout out to the top male and female surfing athlete in this county, the Orange County Surfer of the Year award. Yes, I realize the year’s not over yet, but close enough for me to make my choice.

I also want to hear your choices. You can vote online for the readers choice for men’s surfer beginning Friday. Your winners and mine will receive their award at a banquet at Nalu’s Island Grill in Irvine in December.

And without further ado, here’s my picks: Greg Long and Courtney Conlogue. You’ve probably seen me put out a lot of ink about these two. They deserve it. Each is an excellent athlete with the results to show for it.

Conlogue is one of the great hopes for U.S. women’s surfing. Just 16, she is already a veteran on the U.S. team. She’s broken records at the U.S. Open and East Coast Surfing Championships. This year however, she won her first NSSA national championship and won the bronze medal at the World Junior Championships. Conlogue also won the Girls Under 18 title at the USA Championships. On the women’s side, it’s impossible to argue with those results.

Long is, I’ll say it again, the best young big wave surfer in the world. Period. He is redefining the sport as a young guy in the world of seasoned veterans and also in his uber-aggressive approach to being on the right swell at the right time.

He kicked off the year by winning Mavericks, then hopped on the next plane to Hawaii for an Eddie contest that evaporated at the last minute. He won two more XXL awards in April, making him the winningest athlete in the history of the award event. In July, he finished second to friend and rival Grant Baker at the Red Bull Big Wave Africa, nearly getting his second victory in the contest. And it should be noted, he accomplished most of that without sponsorship, a feat almost impossible these days.

One last note, I want to hand out a special recognition award to U.S.A. Surf Team head coach Joey Buran. The former pro has worked tirelessly rebuilding the program and the team’s copper medal at the world juniors and silver medal at the world games are direct results of his leadership.

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