Huntington Surf & Sport Wins Surf Shop Challenge Qualifier | Oakley Surfshop Challenge 2018
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SURFER Magazine is pleased to announce that 2017 Nationals runner-up, Huntington Surf & Sport will, for the third year in a row, be competing at the Oakley Surf Shop Challenge National Championship event.
Competitors at the Oakley Surf Shop Challenge West qualifier were faced with small but highly contestable 2-3ft waves and light winds at 54th Street in Newport Beach, CA for stop four of the national touring series.
Five teams consisting of the squads from Catalyst, Huntington Surf & Sport, Jack’s Surfboards Newport Beach, Spyder Surfboards, and Surfside Sports took to the water for the sixty-minute final heat. It appeared the teams from Catalyst and Jacks Surfboards were threatening to dethrone the defending regional champs but strong performances from key HSS Shop Challenge vets Brett Simpson who whammied an 8.40 on his second ride (for a total wave score for 16.80) and Brad Ettinger who locked a 6.43 as the team’s final surfer proved to be the difference makers.
With the win, Huntington Surf & Sport three-peats as the West OSSC Regional Champion and will be headed to Playa Colorado in Nicaragua for the National Championship event in October.
“We came out for the final feeling pretty confident even though there were really good teams this year,” explains HSS’s final surfer Brad Ettinger, “but Catalyst still had an opportunity to win the heat so I hung out there for that last wave. Thankfully the ocean went flat, I ran in during the last minute before everything was over, and the rest is History!”
