Top-Seeded Daley Fails to Gain Semifinals of Surfing Contest

Top-seeded Scott Daley of El Segundo was eliminated Saturday in the second round of the $12,000 Maui and Sons surfing competition at Salt Creek Beach in Laguna Niguel.

Daley, 28--who became the contest’s first seed after the original top seed, Mike Lambresi of Carlsbad, failed to pay his entry fee on time Friday--lost in a four-man heat to third-seeded Trevor Christ of Encinitas and Randy Wright of Venice.

Christ and Wright will compete this morning at 8 in one of four semifinal heats with Craig Comen of Huntington Beach and Mark Watkins of Capistrano Beach. Finals will begin at 12:30 p.m.

If Christ, 18, finishes fifth or better today, he will have accumulated enough points to overtake Lambresi for the lead of the Professional Surfing Assn. of America. Lambresi has 5,000 points, Christ 4,415.

The Maui and Sons contest is the 11th of 15 stops on the PSAA circuit.

Others men’s division semifinalists include Mike Baron (Oceanside), Jeff Booth (Laguna Beach), Lonny Brothers (Del Mar), Joey Buran (Vista), Chris Burke (La Jolla), Clete Hamilton (Carlsbad), Bud Llamas (Huntington Beach), Frank Madrid (Carlsbad), Todd Martin (Encinitas), John Parmenter (Huntington Beach), Rich Rudolph (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) and Steve Ward (San Clemente).

In the long board division, Bill Stewart, Ryan Bent, Herbie Fletcher, Matt Carter and Israel Paskowitz, all from San Clemente, advanced to today’s semifinals at 7 a.m. Finals are scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

In the body boarding division, world champion Mike Stewart of Kona, Hawaii, will compete against defending PSAA champion Keith Sasaki, Ben Severson (Honolulu), Chris Cunningham (Huntington Beach) and Joe Foster (Fountain Valley) in today’s semifinals at 10 a.m. Finals begin at noon.

Saturday’s conditions consisted of mostly 3- to 5-foot surf with an occasional 6-foot set and good shape.