by Dave Delgado

Guam - In kids surfing news the 2nd Annual O'Neil, DNA surf event takes place this Sunday at the Onward Water Park. The event kicks off with opening ceremonies at 10:00 am and will run through out the whole day. About 60 competitors are expected to compete in 5 different age groups.

Coach Joe Villatora told KUAM Sports, "We train at the Onward Water Park, thank you to Onward for allowing us to give these kids their basic confinement to the sport of surfing. Not just the surfing part we teach but also the safety aspect of the sport like swimming treads water and stuff like that. When they come in they have 30 minutes of warm ups and basic getting them on the board and then when that happens we have another 30 minutes of a small wave session where they can start to get up on their feet. Once that is done then we have 30 minutes of breaking waves which are about waist high and that are when they really put those confinements to test. Paddling, the basic positions of popping up to their feet and balancing and since it such a confined space we have coaches right there to correct their stance and correct their paddling. It's a great thing we have here on Guam and we thank Onward for allowing us to give this back to the kids."

The Onward surf program is a great feeder system for young and up coming surfers to help them learn the basics of surfing. The Huinali Surf Club recently sent out 7 kids to compete in the North Shore Menehune Surf Contest in Hawaii.

Coach Fred Mendiola added, "The judging involves the surfer's knowledge of timing and how the wave works with their technique and all that. So they have to time their take off and make sure they get up at the right time so they don't get thrown of their surfboard and wipe out. They have the wave pool setting where the wave actually breaks and for the kids 5-12 it actually has some power. So the kids have to have timing and control. Then they take off on the wave and the criteria involves what they do on the wave, like technique and maneuvers they can pull off before the wave ends on the kind of beach that the water park has."