OC junior surfers headed to New Zealand to compete against world's best

There are three things coach Ian Cairns tries to instill into the young surfers on his team: skill, strategy and attitude.

They need to have the skills to take risks, to have that special sizzle that comes with doing new school maneuvers like aerials, combined with old school carve and power.

The surfers have to have strategy, because even a bad surfer can win on a good wave. They need to ride a lot of good waves, and never fall. You have to be on the best wave, at the best time.

And probably the most important is attitude – because even if you’re the best surfer out there, if you’re not determined to win, you have no place on the team. You have to have the desire to win, and the passion to push hard to overcome obstacles.

Since September, Cairns has been training an elite group of young surfers who are headed to Piha, New Zealand Jan. 20 – 28 to compete at the Quiksilver ISA World Juniors Championships.

Of the 12 surfers on the PacSun USA Junior Surf Team, half are from Orange County.

Last year in Ecuador, the American team placed fourth among the 36 countries. Their biggest competition is the Aussies, Brazil, France and South Africa.

Cairns said one of the biggest challenges for the US team is their lack of developed competitive skills - while many of our kids strive for sponsorships and the big magazine covers, less emphasis is put on being the best.

“The rest of the surfers around the world have been surfing in a competitive format that is more professional,” said Cairns, an Australian surfer who helped pave the way for professional surfing decades ago.

Cairns chatted with me a bit to give us a glimpse at each OC surfer competing in the event:

Under 18 women:

Courtney Conlogue, Santa Ana: A very talented surfer, because she’s super fit she has great power and style. And she has an amazing will to win. I personally believe women can surf as well as men. I push them hard, because they’ve sorted themselves as girls, and not great surfers. I want them to aspire to be as good as Mick Fanning. I think Courtney is one of the people who embraces that idea a lot.

Kaliegh Gilchrest, Newport Beach: A strong girl, Kaliegh is headed to USC to be a part of the water polo team. She’s a great swimmer, but I’m working with her on having more finesse. When she gets into a powerful wave, she has great spectacular carving moves.

Taylor Pitz, Laguna Beach: A really passionate and agro competitor. I love it when I see girls just go crazy and share that kind of passion and be really aggressive. She’ll go for anything and she’ll be really aggressive in the line up. She’s a good surfer and easily competitive, and what will make her a better surfer is the attitude she brings.

Under 18 Men’s:

Andrew Doheny, Newport Beach: The kid was shouted in the magazines as the next big thing. About two years ago, he kind of had burn out. Bringing him on the team was like ‘Ok, let’s see if we can relight this flame and get the passion back into the stoke of your surfing, then we’ll tap into your talent.’ He’s a surfer with great talent, great carving moves, an artistic and unconventional kind of kid. I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere near his best surfing. I’ll be pushing hard.

Under 16 Men’s:

Kolohe Andino, San Clemente: He’s a really talented surfer. He needs to put more focus on basic carve and power fundamentals, link a whole wave together and somewhere in the course of that wave do a huge maneuver - but focus on making the whole wave. And I think Kolohe has come a long, long way in doing those things. My vision is a surfer who is easily capable of being a top ten candidate on the World Championship Tour. Working with someone with that sort of talent, I really enjoy the challenge of working on the psychology, and what are the things that motivate them to charge and give 100 percent.

Trevor Thornton, San Clemente: He’s one of the youngest on the team, but he surfs like a young man. One of the advantages of growing up in California, they learn how to be light and quick because the waves don’t have much power – but because he has power, he generates great speed and does great moves. His surfing style is similar to what I want our team to aspire to: fluid, carving, powerful, spectacular.