Irons - who was raised in Hawaii - has been on a break from the World Tour, and apparently it’s showing. The three-time world champ was taking out in heat 16 of round of 96.

Ouch.

The contest only ran two heats today to finish up the round of 96. There’s still plenty  of OC surfers to root for through the weekend.

Huntington Beach’s Brett Simpson is up early tomorrow (if the contest runs) in the round of 64, and will be going up against Andy’s bro, Bruce Irons.

A few heats later, San Clemente’s Tanner Gudauskas is up,  followed by Nathan Yeomans, and then Tanner’s brother Patrick competes.

HB’s Tim Reyes is later in the day, in a heat against Sunny Garcia.

Check out how the OC surfers did earlier in the contest.

Watch the action live here.

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Contests:

The NSSA contest will bring some of So Cal’s best 18 and under amateur surfers to battle it out at  54th Street in Newport Beach. It’s the sixth stop of the National Scholastic Surfing Association Southwest Conference Open Season. The event will have a special air show division, with cash up for grabs for the surfer who can pull off the most radical aerial.

 Keep an eye out for these OC names:  Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi and Christian Saenz, Capistrano Beach’s Luke Davis, Costa Mesa’s Colin Moran, Newport Beach’s Tyler Gunter and Kaleigh Gilchrist.

Read more about it here.

 Volcom contest:

If you’re an amateur or pro competitive surfer, then here’s your last chance to qualify for Volcom’s big championship event next year.

The third and final stop of the Volcom Totally Crustaceous Surf  Tour, Orange County Starfish Series is happening next weekend.

The one-day event, held at River Jetties in Newport Beach, will likely draw lots of top talent from up and down the California coast. 

Read more about the event here. Next weekend’s Volcom contest takes place at River Jetties in Newport Beach. Check out more info here.

Beach clean up:

Save Our Beach in Seal is hosting its monthly beach clean up starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Meet at 1st Street Beach lot at the corner of Ocean and 1st near River’s End restaurant. They usually go until about 1 p.m. 

They provide parking passes, garbage bags, protective gloves and certificates if you need it for school or community service credit. They are also asking that people bring at least one canned good, so they can take some grub to the local food bank. More info: www.saveourbeach.org

Surf shop openings:

There’s a couple of grand opening parties for surf companies that are a bit off the OC coast, but it sounds like they will be worth the drive.  

Here in Orange County, Faction Surfboards is opening shop and factory in Santa Ana and is throwing a party on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Faction Surfboards was launched in 2007 by local Huntington Beach shaper Mike Huseman. There will be tons of giveaways and free Wahoos fish tacos.  Click here for Surf Junkie Jeff’s write up about it, or check out factionsurfboards.com for more info.

Address:  1981 Ritchey Street, Santa Ana 92705

A bit up the coast in Santa Monica, Hurley and ZJ Boarding House are hosting a grand opening party in Santa Monica on Saturday.

There will be live music, drinks, food, and plenty of prizes. If you purchase any goods from the store, you’ll also get a free “Drifter” tee, the new Rob Machado, Taylor Steele movie. Check out more info here.

Celebrate Surf:

If you’re in the Oceanside area,  swing by the California Surf Museum for the second annual Surf Festival. The  surf culture festival will feature performances, speeches and slideshows from three of the most talented people to bubble up from the surfing world: Evolutionary surfer and author Nat Young, master ukulele strummer Jake Shimabukuro and Clark Little — whose shorebreak art photography offers stunning views of surf and sea.

There’s a full weekend of festivities, including Surfer Magazine’s 50 year anniversary tribute party on Saturday night.

Check out more info here, or to purchase tickets  go to the California Surf Festival website at www.californiasurffestival.com or call 760-721-6876.

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Overseas, there are about 70 teams that compete in the Jim Beam SurfTag event – and organizers are hoping the Cali event will one day be as prestigious as the one Down Under, where surfers such as Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Taj Burrow join the event

The contest is a team format, with five surfers per team who each have an hour to try to get three stellar waves for points. As soon as the third wave is caught, the teammate runs up on the sand to slap hands with the next surfer.

CHECK OUT A SLIDESHOW FROM THE EVENT.

Donny Wilson knew his second wave had to be a good one.

The waves weren’t anything special, 2-3 foot on the south side of the Huntington Pier on Friday, the first of the two-day Jim Beam SurfTag contest.

With his teammates holding their breath on the sand, Wilson crouched down into a wave, and suddenly found himself getting barreled.

His teammates cheered from the sand. The second wave out of three the surfers had to catch – called a “power wave” – is worth double the points.

“Where did he find that wave?” an announcer asked over the loudspeaker.

Surfer Wayne Kelly, on team “Safety” from Santa Cruz, stacked up major points for his team after pulling off an aerial maneuver.

“I find myself rooting for my guys, and really wanting my friends to do well,” he said. “Usually during competitions, I want them to go down.”

In the end, Carlsbad’s Team Reef took the win and now holds the title of “Best Surf Team in California.”

Post from: OC Beach Blog

This NSSA event is single A rated, but will have a special Airshow division which is always exciting to watch.  And sometimes there’s even some cash up for grabs for the surfer who can pull off the most radical aerial.

Some of the other divisions that will be taking to the water this weekend include: Boys, Juniors, Longboard, Mens, Mini-Grom and Womens.

As always there’s a lot of top talent from Orange County that will be competing.  They include: Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi and Christian Saenz, Capistrano Beach’s Luke Davis, Costa Mesa’s Colin Moran, Newport Beach’s Tyler Gunter and Kaleigh Gilchrist.

The two day competition starts about 7:30 a.m each day and wraps up about 5 p.m.  For more info. and heat times, check out nssa.org.

When: Saturday, November 21st and Sunday, November 22nd

Where: 54th Street, Newport Beach

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The Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational In Memory of Eddie Aikau takes place at Waimea Bay which is one of the most famous surf spots on the seven mile stretch of coast. 

However, the special event hasn’t happened since December of 2004, when Kauai’s Bruce Irons took the win. 

The contest requires the surf to be at least 25 feet Hawaiian scale which is about 30 to 40 feet on the face of the wave, but mother nature hasn’t produced that amount of swell in the last five years.

Some of this years invitees include: 9-time World Champion Kelly Slater, Andy and Bruce Irons, Sunny Garcia, Grant “Twiggy” Baker, Michael Ho, Shane Dorian and San Clemente’s Greg Long.

The 2009/2010 Eddie Aikau event is celebrating the 25th anniversary this winter.  The opening ceremony takes place on Thursday December 3rd.  The official waiting period for the contest runs until February 28, 2010. 

For more info. and a full list of this years invitees and alternates, go to quiksilver.com/eddie.

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The final event in the national series brought together some of the best young surfers from around the nation, with Kolohe earning an all-expenses paid trip to Bells Beach in Australia in April to go up against the best from around the globe.

Kolohe posted a heat total of 15.36 in the final, where he went up against - and beat out -  Newport’s Taylor Thorne.

Andino is no stranger to winning and has had a stellar year - in June, he took home national titles in three divisions during the National Scholastic Surfing Championship.

The Rip Curl contest is meant to groom young talent to face similar conditions to those they would see in the World Championship Tour, on which undoubtedly we’ll see some of these young surfers in the near future.

O.C.’s Lakey Peterson also did really well, placing second in the finals for girls younger than 16.

It’s the 10th year the event has been held, and through the years several now well-known names have been among the winners, including surfers such as Stephanie Gilmore, Mason Ho (who beat Jordy Smith to become the first non-Australian Rip Curl GromSearch Champion in 2005), Owen Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons and Alana Blanchard, according to the Web site.

Read more on surfing:

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If you’re an amateur or pro competitive surfer, then here’s your last chance to qualify for Volcom’s big championship event next year. 

The third and final stop of the Volcom Totally Crustaceous Surf  Tour, Orange County Starfish Series is happening next weekend.

The one-day event will likely draw lots of top talent from up and down the California coast. 

Robert Patterson is holding down the overall points in the Pro/Am division followed by Newport Beach’s Chase Newsom.  Sitting in first in the Juniors division is Eric Heimstaedt and in second is Newport Beach’s Bobby Okvist.

Then in the Groms division it’s Martin Jeri holding down the lead followed by Costa Mesa’s Colin Moran.  And lastly in the Girls it’s Kulia Doherty in first with Charlotte Hand trailing behind in second.

Next weekend’s Volcom contest takes place at River Jetties in Newport Beach.  As always it’s FREE to enter, but on a first come first serve basis.  So if you’re planning on surfing in the competition get there at the crack of dawn!! 

As always there’s a ton of great prizes for the finalists and some cash for the overall winner of the Pro/Am division.  For more info. check out volcom.com or call (949) 646-2175 ext. 6302.

When: Saturday, November 21st

Where: River Jetties, Newport Beach

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The event started in Australia in 2001, and allows surf clubs to compete against each other in a unique tag-team format, with five surfers on each team. In relay style, each surfer catches three waves and then returns to the beach to tag their team’s next surfer. The U.S. version of Jim Beam Surftag uses the same format. 

The top eight teams from each of the three qualifiers - Manhattan Beach, Ventura and Oceanside - will advance to the championship contest on Saturday and Sunday.

A purse of $10,000 will be given at the final event, with  up to 16 teams will participate in each event.

When: Nov. 14 and 15

Where: Huntington Beach Pier
More info:  www.jimbeamsurftag.com

Post from: OC Beach Blog

The best 16 and under surfers from around the nation are about to take over Salt Creek in Dana Point this weekend.  The 2009 Rip Curl GromSearch National Final will get underway on Saturday, November 14th.

Some of the invited athletes from Orange County include: Costa Mesa’s Colin Moran, Taylor and Jared Thorne from Newport Beach and Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi.

The winner of the premier 16 and under division will win an all-expense paid trip to Bells Beach in Australia to compete in the GromSearch International Finals next April.

This year’s Rip Curl GromSearch National Final has a total prize purse of $2,500.  To watch the live action, log onto ripcurl.com/gromsearch.   

When: Saturday, November 14th

Where: Salt Creek, Dana Point

Post from: OC Beach Blog

Two San Clemente surfers killed it this weekend, with Patrick Gudauskas going to the semi-finals in a contest at the Canary Islands, and Nate Yeomans dominating at the O’Neill Cold Water Classic.

Check out this article the Register’s Fred Swegles wrote about how they’re looking for the World Tour, along with several other OC surfers.

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