SURFING: IRONS EDGES LEGEND IN U.S. OPEN FINAL.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer HUNTINGTON BEACH Huntington Beach, city (1990 pop. 181,519), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast, across from Santa Catalina Island, in an oil-producing area; inc. 1909. It manufactures aerospace vehicles, aircraft parts, optical instruments, and heat transfer equipment. - The way Andy Irons saw it, if his chief rival couldn't be there, beating a surfing legend wasn't a bad alternative. Irons, the three-time defending world champion from Hawaii, took home the U.S. Open of Surfing men's title Sunday afternoon in front of an estimated 100,000 at the Huntington Beach Pier The Huntington Beach Pier is a publicly owned pier located in Huntington Beach, California. At 1,853 feet in length, it is one of the longest public piers on the West Coast. (The longest is Oceanside Pier at 1942 feet). by defeating crowd favorite Rob Machado in the finals of the 232-man World Qualifying Series competition. Absent from the tournament field was Irons' chief rival on the World Championship Tour, Kelly Slater, who because of an airline strike was unable to make it to Huntington Beach after beating Irons last week in a WCT WCT World Championship Tour (surfing competition) WCT WIPO Copyright Treaty WCT Wind Chill Temperature WCT Wide Complex Tachycardia WCT Wavefront Conduction Time WCT Wright's Computer Technology (England) event in South Africa. ``Having Rob, who is such a great surfer, in the final, I'm more stoked stoked adj. Slang 1. Exhilarated or excited. 2. Being or feeling high or intoxicated, especially from a drug. about that than anything,'' said Irons, who arrived Tuesday in Los Angeles after a 36-hour trek. ``He's beaten me so many times in the past, so it's nice to finally get one back from him.'' Irons barely edged Machado, a surfing legend from Cardiff-by-the-Sea whose reputation is so firmly ensconced en·sconce tr.v. en·sconced, en·sconc·ing, en·sconc·es 1. To settle (oneself) securely or comfortably: She ensconced herself in an armchair. 2. in the surfing community he doesn't need to compete on the WCT to maintain his sponsorships. Irons led most of the 30-minute heat and held on to win 13.10-12.66 after Machado caught a big wave in the final 10 seconds of the competition, nearly pulling out the victory. Machado, who won the event in 1995 and 2001, needed a 7.77 on the final wave to win the competition, and the standing-room-only crowd seemed to think he'd done enough, cheering him loudly as he rode into shore, lifted up his hands and fell backward into the water off his board. Moments later, Machado's score was announced as 7.33. Irons received a loud ovation, and some in the crowd carried him off the beach on his surfboard. ``(Falling into the water) was just like a sigh of 'I gave it all I had, and I couldn't do anything else,' '' Machado said. ``But you just can't beat the champ by a little bit. You have to really go out and beat the champion.'' Julia Christian of Carlsbad won the women's title Saturday. Other winners were Hawaii's Hank Gaskell (junior men), South Africa's Nikkita Robb (junior women) and Joel Tudor of La Jolla (longboard A longboard generally designates a longer board variant in various .
Ramona Shelburne, (818) 713-3617 ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com |
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