Pro Tour Schedules First Lower Trestles Event

Professional surfers have long complained about the mushy waves at Huntington Beach, the only mainland stop on the World Championship Tour, but because most of their sponsors are based in the Southland, they have begrudgingly showed up for the annual summer event.

Now, they’ll be coming to Orange County because of the waves.

Lower Trestles, arguably the best surfing spot in Southern California, will host its first Assn. of Surfing Professionals WCT event, the Billabong Pro, scheduled for Sept. 24-30. Six-time world champion Kelly Slater is expected to take a wild-card spot.

Four-time world champion Lisa Andersen has called the break at Trestles “a high-performance wave, a wave that really allows you to progress to another level.

“I’ve surfed the best waves all over the world,” she said, “and I’ve had some of my most fun days at Trestles.”

The state limits surfing competitions at the San Clemente beach to three a year, and they can only be five days in length and include only one weekend day, protecting recreational surfers’ access to the break.

In 1997, the Huntington Beach event was scheduled for Trestles--where spectators must walk more than a mile to the beach--but sponsors balked because of the inaccessibility and the event was again held at Huntington Beach.

There is parking for about 300 cars at Trestles, which means attendance will be substantially less than the 100,000 or so who attend the annual Huntington Beach contest, which includes a festival of other extreme sports, massive grandstands and retailer booths.

“That is not what we will do at Trestles, ever,” said Mike Tope, the superintendent of the Orange Coast district of California State Parks.

A surf festival is planned for the city of San Clemente during the competition, allowing the surf industry to show its wares.

If a sizable south swell happens to coincide with the week of the event, everybody will be happy. The point break could provide a spectacular forum for the world’s best surfers, equal to Hawaii and other top spots.

“It looks like it’s shaping up to be a really good summer for the sport of surfing in Orange County,” said Bob Mignogna, publisher of San Clemente-based Surfing Magazine. “Being that this is the most visible place on the planet for the sport, other than maybe the North Shore of Hawaii, it’s great having the best surfers here.

“When they are here, they create a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz.”

Meanwhile, the Huntington Beach WCT event is getting a new name and sponsor. The Gotcha Pro will become the Bluetorch Pro. Bluetorch is an Aliso Viejo-based media network that specializes in promoting extreme sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, in-line skating and BMX.