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A new definition for the word perfect was found at 56 th street in Newport over the past weekend when the Newport Harbor High school held their annual surf team fundraiser – the 9 th annual Newport Classic.

After a battle of wind and drizzle on Sunday, the second day of the event, the skies cleared for some spectacular surfing in the finals.

Saturday’s contests saw 16 prelim and semi final heats run among the middle school, high school and men’s open divisions. The 80 contestants battled through the wind blown, knee high surf and by the end of the first day 36 surfers had advanced in these three divisions.

Sunday’s contests ran 18 more heats representing all seven divisions-men’s, high school, middle/grade school, masters, women’s, long board, body board and a special expression session.

110 surfers competed during the two day event.

The men’s open division heats included two semi final heats plus the finals. The finals were a close contest with NHHS alum Chad LaBass edging out Daniel Shea for first place and Ian Caleron taking third place.

The highs school division saw NHHS claim the top two positions as USA surf team rider Chase Wilson took first place with the top score of the day – 8.6 average wave score as Victor Done took second with the second best score of the day at 7.7. Vance Smith of Edison placed third.

The grom/middle school division was won by Colin Moran (Teewinkle) averaging 6.5 wave score. Moran is the youngest rider for the USA surf team. Blake Davis (Carden Hall) took second and Charlie Hawthorne (Ensign) took third.

Eric Vallely, NHHS alum took first place in the long board division with a 6.9 score. . NHHS surfers Andy Delorme and Aaron Cervantes placed second and third respectively.

The women’s division was won by NHHS star Kaleigh Gilchrist.with a 6.0 score Gilchrist is also a USA team rider and three weeks earlier had placed first this year in the NSSA high school state wide competition. NHHS team mates Devyn Hartnett and Courtney McPhee placed second and third. AliHayes of Edison placed fourth.

The body board contest was won by Joe Suzuki. Briggs Viloria and Casey Bushong placed second and third respectively.

The masters division was won by local Mike Estrada. Placing second and third respectively were Barry McPhee and Tom Cozad both from Newport Beach .

A special expression session (air show) was won by Capo Valley ’s Ian Caleron.

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The event would not have been possible without the exceptional support from local surf shop – Surfside Sports and the other co-sponsors – Quicksilver, Smith Optical, Vestal, OAM and Gallos of Balboa..

The two day event was made more spectacular by the numerous raffles held concurrent with the contests. Numerous local businesses contributed to the raffles. All of these donors can be seen as well as specific heat results at www.nhhssurf.com.

The event concluded with an awards ceremony where the top six finishers in each division won prizes, donated from the co-sponsors and local business.

Two Hundred plus ‘surf fans’ (parents and friends) enjoyed a perfect weekend at the beach.