NSSA Southwest Conference Open – November 2009

The National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage and assist its members in their interest to learn and develop the fundamentals and skills of surfing competition while competing in structured and quality events.
Kanoa Igarashi is a surfer to watch - he's broken tons of records, despite being under 12.
Checking out his score
Proud parents watch from the sand
Kody Clemens hits the lip in Newport Beach
The NSSA is one of the few national youth sports organizations that require its participants to maintain academic standards in order to compete, according to the Web site. More than 80 NSSA events are run nationwide.
Hitting the lip in Newport at the NSSA contest
Mom gives a little help
The younger generation has a bit more flare when it comes to board styles - look for an 80s come back of bright colors
Bottom turning
Who gets it?
Discussing strategy
Ryland Rubens gets low
Thenlen McKinna-Norrell throws some spray at the NSSA contest at 54th street in Newport Beach
Young grom gets air in Newport
HB's Kanoa Igarashi cruses along on the wave. He placed first in this heat after scoring a 9.5 on one of his waves.
Jake Marshall throws some spray at the NSSA contest
Off the lip
Paddle Battle
A little barrel
Surf was head-high on Sunday - well, head high for these groms
Discussing strategy? or intimidating eachother?
Pig dogging into the barrel
Tyler Gunter gets into the wave

By Laylan Connelly | lconnelly@scng.com | Orange County Register

May 18, 2010 at 2:58 p.m.

The 6th stop of the (NSSA) National Scholastic Surfing Association Southwest Conference Open Season took place in Newport Beach November 21-22nd

The NSSA event is single A rated, but also had a special Airshow division. Sometimes there’s even some cash up for grabs for the surfer who can pull off the most radical aerial.

As always, there’s a lot of top talent from Orange County in the water. Including: 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.

For more info on final scores and updated rankings, check out nssa.org.