Huntington Beach Pier

Ryan Rodriguez had two location options to choose from for his leg of a countrywide relay. His choices were the city of Banning, in Riverside County, or the town of Amboy, in the Mojave Desert. Regardless of which area he ran through, the 41-year-old Huntington Beach resident wanted to participate in One Run for Boston - a continuous relay from Los Angeles to Boston that started June 7 and ends June 30. "Amboy is the hottest place on earth, practically. It can get up to 120 degrees out there," said Rodriguez, who eventually picked Banning as his portion of the relay.

Of all the contests held in exotic locales all over the globe, nothing seems to get surfers fired up like competing at the Huntington Beach Pier. North America's highest-rated qualifying event, the $185,000 Honda U.S. Open of Surfing presented by O'Neill, begins Friday with early round trials at the pier and runs through to the championship finals on July 30. The U.S. Open of Surfing anchors the 2006 Bank of the West Beach Games. The men's and women's divisions are six-star World Qualifying Series events and 500 world-class surfers are expected to compete in Surf City.

The Nike 6.0 Pier Pressure, presented by Jack?s, returns to the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier on Sunday and Monday. The event follows the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. Nationals, which began Tuesday and runs through Saturday. The event has been upgraded this year to an Assn. of Surfing Professionals Grade 4 event, making it the highest rated Pro Junior ever in North America. As a Grade 4, the Nike 6.0 Pier Pressure has a $20,000 prize purse, with ample points up for grabs that will have a major impact on the Pro Junior ratings.

The 2006 Bank of the West Beach Games featuring the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing presented by O'Neill opened last Friday, but the main thrust of the games begins today at the Huntington Beach Pier. A wide range of events take place today on 12 acres surrounding the pier, beginning with U.S. Open of Surfing men's competition and ending with the Boost Mobile Pro Surf Trials. Also today, an interactive festival village officially opens and Teen Vogue Fashion Live! will take place on the concert stage.

Thousands upon thousands of people are expected to flock to the beaches south of the Huntington Beach pier this weekend for the popular, if sometimes controversial, first competition in the National Professional Paintball League's Super 7 World Series of Paintball. Admission to the event is free Friday through Sunday, and a news release from the paintball league estimates attendance at the finals on Sunday alone at more than 50,000. "This is the biggest event in paintball," said Owen Ronayne, head of sales for Huntington Beach-based WDP Paintball, Inc., an equipment manufacturer.

Nathaniel Curran said he was in somewhat of "a daze" in the immediate aftermath of the Men's final at the U.S. Open of Surfing Sunday. As Curran and his finals foe, Tim Boal of France, awaited official word on who won the coveted title, the two were mobbed by the media and well-wishers at the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier. And they waited. And waited. But Curran, a resident of Oxnard, said he had been told earlier that he was the winner. He was just waiting for confirmation.

The first event of the 2012-13 National Scholastic Surfing Assn.'s Southwest Conference Open Season is Saturday and Sunday at the Huntington Beach Pier. The 10-part series also returns to the pier Dec. 1-2. The NSSA's Southwest Conference Explorer Season will hold its third series event Oct. 6-7 at Ninth Street in Huntington Beach. * Beach volleyball finals in Surf City Huntington Beach will serve as host site for the seventh and final event of the 2012 Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series, the National Championships, Sept.

Boardfest ?09, the largest youth boarding event of its kind, will be Friday through Sunday at the Huntington Beach Pier. The event features surfing, snowboarding and skateboarding competitions, fashion shows, live bands, surf and skate clinics, an interactive exposition, and a Labor Day salute to Girl Power. More than 100,000 spectators ? primarily tweens, teens and young adults ? are expected to attend. Key components of the weekend include the nation?s largest girls?

The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. is hosting its Western championships on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier through Sunday. Rippers from as far south as Imperial Beach and as far north as Santa Cruz will try to win the last big event before nationals in June. Top-ranked competitors in all age brackets, from mini-groms to super-seniors, will compete. We've had a pretty solid south swell all week, and a west swell is scheduled to hit by the weekend, so it should make for some great surfing action.

Ryan Rodriguez had two location options to choose from for his leg of a countrywide relay. His choices were the city of Banning, in Riverside County, or the town of Amboy, in the Mojave Desert. Regardless of which area he ran through, the 41-year-old Huntington Beach resident wanted to participate in One Run for Boston - a continuous relay from Los Angeles to Boston that started June 7 and ends June 30. "Amboy is the hottest place on earth, practically. It can get up to 120 degrees out there," said Rodriguez, who eventually picked Banning as his portion of the relay.

Summer is in the air and for many Huntington Beach locals that means one thing, The Vans U.S. Open of Surfing. Anticipation is palpable for the brand new sponsors and the community can't wait to see what they're bringing. One thing for certain, the Surfrider Foundation's second annual After the Open benefit is happening and if you didn't attend last year's spectacular event, then you missed an after party to end all others. After the Open will once again be held at the Waterfront Hilton Resort in the Driftwood Sands venue directly behind the hotel adjacent to Pacific Coast Highway.

Around 3,000 rubber ducks were dumped off the side of Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday for the 2013 Duck-A-Thon. The annual event helps raise funds for the AltaMed Medical and Dental Group in Huntington Beach - a medical group that assists the uninsured in the city. Michela Engle's duck was the first to float back to shore, earning her the $1,000 grand prize. - Anthony Clark Carpio Twitter: @acocarpio

They have retrieved every rubber duck that's been tossed off the Huntington Beach Pier for the last 20 years. A pair of skip loaders typically dumps around 4,000 bright yellow artificial waterfowls over the railing for the annual Duck-A-Thon, an event that raises funds for the AltaMed Medical and Dental Group in Huntington Beach. This year's event will run May 17 through 19. A group of about 50 volunteers watch over the bright-yellow artificial waterfowls, making sure that the thousands of bathtub toys make it back to shore, Duck-A-Thon co-chairman Warren Conde said.

The highly anticipated surfing industry trade show the Boardroom got the boot before its massive footprint even hit the beach, according to a news release. The consumer surfing forum put on by GLM will move from the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach this summer to the O.C. Fair & Events Center in Costa Mesa on Oct. 5 and 6, the release said. "We made this decision reluctantly, given our respect for both Huntington Beach and the U.S. Open of Surfing," GLM founder and show director Scott Bass said in a statement.

In an act of solidarity, about 80 runners from Huntington Beach and Orange County gathered Monday at the Huntington Beach Pier in a run for Boston. Wearing running bibs with the date of the attack and the Boston skyline underneath, participants ran for about 15 minutes away of the pier and another 15 minutes toward it. "The way that the running community has come together just speaks volumes to how strong everyone is," participant Brian Cook said. "Runners are determined and strong and we're going to come back and run again and we're going to run Boston again.

Nearly 100 people gathered at the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday morning for one purpose - to fly kites. Some traveled as far as San Diego, Washington, Pennsylvania and Canada. A few even flew out from Germany and Tasmania. These kite fliers congregate to Huntington Beach for their yearly Kite Party, now in its 11th year. There's no flying competition or any judging of kites. These participants had only one thing in mind: a weekend of flying their kites in the beach air and having fun. "It's kind of addictive," said John Mason, 65, of San Diego.

Colorful whimsy will take over the Huntington Beach Pier this weekend as the 11th annual Kite Party takes flight. Hosted by the Kite Connection, a kite retailer located on the Huntington Beach Pier, almost 100 professional flyers from around the world will gather at roped off sections on the north and south sides of the pier for two days of recreational flying. The event starts at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday and goes until the late afternoon. Kite Connection owner Dave Shenkman said the event is free to the public and encourages them to bring or purchase kites of their own and join in. "It's geared for experienced kite flyers, but for spectators, they get to watch professional demonstrations and get professional kite lessons," Shenkman said.

The AYSO Region 55 (Huntington Beach) girls' soccer under-10 team, Black Out White Out, won its division at both the All-Star and All-Star Sectionals tournaments in February. Black Out White Out will compete in March at the state championship tournament at Davis. The team, coached by Terence Tubbs, Dave Wiederin and Holly Sjogren, is: Sarah Boucher, Mikayla Carman, Sophia Doumanian, Kaili Manthorne, Isabella Messina, Cora Sjogren, Vanessa Tapia, Jillian Tubbs and Annika Wiederin.

Hundreds who gathered on the Huntington Beach Pier and the beach in anticipation of space shuttle Endeavour's journey over the coast left disappointed. "It's a bust," said Huntington Beach resident Joe Giordano. Giordano said he thought about staying home, but decided to go to the pier for what he thought would be the best view. Endeavour made its rounds in Southern California atop Boeing 747 aircraft, and while it was visible around 12:30 p.m. to those on the pier, it stayed more inland.