The Surfing America USA Championships kicked off today at Lower Trestles, bringing surfers from around the nation to compete.

It’s the seventh year for the contest, and the first year it’s being held in San Onofre. The contest started with preliminaries held on the south side of the Huntington Beach pier last weekend, with the remaining heats and finals to be held at Trestles through Monday (except on Saturday, State Parks does not allow a contest to be held two consecutive weekend days.)

The surfers are a mix of pre-qualified athletes from the top amateur organizations in the United States, including Hawaii Surfing Association (HSA), National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA), Western Surfing Association (WSA), Surfing America Prime Series
Surfing America Wildcards (includes East Coast and Texas Gulf competitors).

Following Monday’s finals, the 2011 PacSun USA Surf Team – which will compete for the United States in the 2011 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships – will be decided.
For more info, go to surfingamerica.org

Check out a slideshow from the day here.

How to get there:
• Take I5 South, exit Basilone Road in San Clemente
• At the top of the exit ramp, turn right
• 100 yards after the top of the off-ramp, turn right off the road
• Enter the yellow gates by the State Parks Beach sign
• Follow the road to the ticket booth and into the parking lot
Surfline Forecast:

THURSDAY: Small SW swell picks up further and mixes with dying SE swell and NW windswell, which pulses up slightly. Surf is in the 3’ to occ. 4’ range. WIND: Light/variable in the early morning, with SW flow developing by mid morning and building to moderate strength W/WSW over the afternoon.

FRIDAY:  SW swell continues, with small NW windswell mixing in. Surf remains in the 3’ to occ 4’ range. WIND: Light/variable in the early morning, with SW flow developing by mid morning and building to moderate strength W over the afternoon.

Going a little further out, a larger SSW swell will be building in over the weekend, from a storm recently in the central South Pacific. The swell looks strongest on Sunday before easing Monday, with shoulder-head high+ waves at Lowers and occasional larger sets likely mix in at times. We’ll be tracking this swell through the South Pacific over the next couple days and will have further updates in our next forecast update.

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