National Scholastic Surfing Assn. national championships begin Wednesday

The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. National Championships begin Wednesday and run through July 3 on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.

Surfers will compete from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day and the event is free to spectators. More than 900 overall participants will compete, making the NSSA National Championships the largest annual youth surfing championships in the nation.

There will be two different divisions, open and explorer. The explorer division runs Wednesday through Friday. The open division, which is the premier division, starts Saturday.

Last year, Robert Grilho of Hawaii won the national open men’s title. At 15 years and three months old, he became the youngest surfer to win that division. Hawaiian Gabriela Bryan won the national open women’s title, topping San Clemente’s Samantha Sibley in the final.

San Clemente’s Hayden Rodgers won the open boys, explorer Menehune and junior airshow divisions last year, while Kade Matson of San Clemente earned a national open juniors title (top surfer 15 or under).

San Clemente recently won the NSSA interscholastic national championships team title at Salt Creek in Dana Point, beating rival Huntington Beach.

::

Support our sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.

For more sports stories, visit latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/sports or follow us on Twitter @DailyPilotSport.