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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aptos High School Wins Santa Cruz Regional Title At Red Bull Riders Cup&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;strong&gt;Premier High School Surfing Series\\u2019 Second Stop will be at Seaside Park in Ventura on March 24-26&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nSanta Cruz, California \\u2013 (March 20th, 2009) \\u2013 The first event of the 2009 Red Bull Riders Cup season, the nations\\u2019 premier high school surfing competition, got off to a dramatic start this week as the best high school surfers in Santa Cruz battled it out under sunny skies and solid conditions.\\u00a0 Participating high schools included Santa Cruz High, Aptos High, Scotts Valley High, Harbor High and Soquel High School.\\u00a0 The competition was fierce, but in the end Aptos High took the victory from runners-up Santa Cruz High.\\u00a0 Aptos High\\u2019s win earned them a spot in the Red Bull Riders Cup Championship, which will be held on June 6-7 at the Upper Trestles in San Clemente.\\u00a0 The series\\u2019 next Regional Title will be up for grabs on March 24-26, when the Red Bull Riders Cup travels to Seaside Park in Ventura.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The first three days of the four-day competition were held at The Hook, and it was local favorites Santa Cruz High and Aptos High that came through the early rounds to advance to Thursday\\u2019s regional finals at Pleasure Point.\\u00a0 In the final game Aptos High won the toss and sent Santa Cruz into the water first.\\u00a0 Santa Cruz got off to a good early start, posting a respectable 21.1 in the top of the first period.\\u00a0 Aptos High\\u2019s decision to surf second proved a great one when they hit the water and were greeted with very solid set waves to take the lead with a score of 23.8.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;But the tables turned dramatically in the second period with Santa Cruz surfers posting some huge scores, led by a massive 9.1 by Shaun Burns.\\u00a0 Aptos High really struggled to find waves in the bottom of the second period, even having to use two timeouts while waiting for some set waves to roll through.\\u00a0 Yet the waves never came, and with a low score of 18.4 for the period, their early lead turned in to a 4.1 point deficit going into the final period.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The game was now Santa Cruz\\u2019s to win, but when they didn\\u2019t post a score higher that a 7 in their final period they left the door slightly open for Aptos High, who could take the win if they could do better than a 23.7.\\u00a0 The ocean was not particularly kind early in the bottom of the final period and after the opening set of waves, Aptos had solid scores but were still trailing.\\u00a0 With 6min 55sec remaining in the final, Aptos High Coach Miske called a timeout and the wait for a good set of waves was on.\\u00a0 The timeout proved a great decision when Sophomore Noah Wegrich caught the wave of the day and posted a near perfect 9.6 ride to slam the door shut and take the Santa Cruz Regional Championships with 1min 59sec to go.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cI was really very proud of the team today, not just for winning but how they did it,\\u201d said Aptos High Coach Kevin Miske. \\u201cThey showed real character to come from behind after a tough second period, and they worked really hard to fight their way back into the game when the pressure was on and win.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cThe coach just said he wanted at least sixes from all of us, so I just wanted to at least get that, then this wave just held up nice for me and gave me chance to put up a good score,\\u201d said MVP and game winner Noah Wegrich.\\u00a0 \\u201cIt felt really good, but I didn\\u2019t expect a 9.6 though!\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Competition Schedule: (West Coast start time: 4:00pm)&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Mar 16-19 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 Santa Cruz Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nMar 24-26 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 Golden State Seaside Park (Surfers Point) Ventura&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nMar 31-Apr 2 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 Central FL Pelican Beach Park&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nApr 18-19 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 South Bay El Porto 45th St. Manhattan Beach&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nApr 21-23 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 North FL New Smyrna\\/Ponce Inlet&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nMay 4-9 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 New Jersey 3rd-9th street, Ocean City&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nMay 19-21 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 Orange County Huntington Beach Pier&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nMay 26-28 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 San Diego Seaside Reef&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nJune 6-7 \\u00a0\\u00a0\\u00a0 Championship Upper Trestles&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The National Surf League and Red Bull have partnered to help bring the sport of surfing to a new and exciting level. \\u201cThe NSL and Red Bull are both companies that are passionate about innovation and bringing out the best performance in surfing. I am very excited to see how we will grow and create a more entertaining and easier way to watch the sport,\\u201d says NSL founder Brad Gerlach.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The NSL is a revolutionary competitive surfing organization established in 2001 by legendary pro surfer, Brad Gerlach. The NSL is dedicated to the pursuit of surfing excellence, building awareness for the sport of surfing while creating a fun competitive landscape for all types of surfers.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The Game Explained&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nModeled after team sports such as Basketball, Football, and Baseball \\u2013 The Game\\u2122 turns an individual sport like surfing into fan-friendly team sport&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u2022 Two teams against each other&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 One team in the water at a time&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 3 Periods, Timeouts, Coaches, Referees&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 Substitutes&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 Rivalries&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 Entertainment&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 Real Surfing&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 Game time: under two hours&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n\\u2022 A scoreboard, continuous commentary, and scoring updates so the crowd and television audience can easily follow the results&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;To follow Red Bull Riders Cup go to &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.redbullsurfing.com\\/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;www.redbullsurfing.com&lt;\\/a&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.grindtv.com/surf/aptos-high-school-wins-santa-cruz-regional-title-at-red-bull-riders-cup/>