Wave Riding Vehicles' run of Northeast regional championships in the Quiksilver Surf Shop Challenge is over.

WRV won the last three Northeast titles. No team had ever won more than two straight in any of the regional championships.

WRV finished second last week in the Northeast championships at Huntington Beach, Calif. - losing 52.8 to 50.5 to Heritage Surf Shop of Sea Isle City, N.J.

"That's a very close margin," said Wes Laine, WRV team captain. "One ride is about what that comes down to."

The Surf Shop Challenge format allows two professionals and two surf-shop employees to form a team. Each surfer is allowed to catch three waves in each heat, with the top two scoring waves counting in the team total.

Laine and Ian Parnell served as WRV employees, and Noah Snyder and Jeff Myers were the team's pros. Parnell and Laine are former professionals. Laine once was ranked as high as ninth in the world standings.

"All the shops have guys working that are great surfers, and that's the key to being good in this thing," Laine said. "The strategy is getting each guy to get two good-scoring waves. If you do that every round, you're in good shape.

"It would have been fun to have won a fourth title, but we've still done something nobody else has."

The regional champions will compete in the Quiksilver Surf Shop National Championship in July in Huntington Beach.

Bassin' update

Rick Morris' run of money finishes in the Bassmaster Elite Series ended last weekend in the fourth of 11 series events.

Morris, a professional bass angler from Virginia Beach, had finished in the top 12 of the second and third tour stops. On Lake Amistad in Texas, Morris managed only a 76th-place finish, failing to make the cut to the final day of angling.

In Elite Series events, which normally last four days, only anglers advancing to the third or fourth days win money. The Lake Amistad event, however, was cut to three days after the first day of fishing was canceled because of bad weather.

Morris entered the event ranked fourth in the overall points standing but fell to 13th. The top 38 qualify for the annual Bassmaster Classic.

His nephew, Ivan Morris of Virginia Beach, competed as a co-angler and finished 100th.

Also, Barbara Gaskins of Suffolk finished the first of four stops on the Women's Bassmaster Tour in 38th place in the co-angler division. The event was held on Lewisville Lake in Texas. Gaskins was second in the co-angler division at the WBT Championship in March. She is attempting to qualify for the next championship and needs to finish in the top 12.

Outdoor Women

The goal of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Outdoors Education Program is to help draw more people into the outdoors community. Each year the department runs programs geared toward youth and women.

On May 17, the department will bring a special women's event to Virginia Beach.

Outdoors Beach Women is a workshop that will feature instruction in a variety of outdoors interests - such as archery basics, backyard habitat, fly-casting, hiking and backpacking, shotgun introduction, kayaking, mountain biking, outdoor cooking, wildlife watching and wilderness survival.

There will be four sessions.

Sessions are $50 each, which includes instruction, program materials, use of demonstration equipment and lunch.

Sessions will be held at Munden Point Park in Virginia Beach. Participants can choose from these time periods: 9 to 10:30 a.m., 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., 1 to 2:30 p.m., or 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.

For more information, call (757) 385-4461 or go to www.VBgov.com/parks [1]. Participants can register at www.dgif.virginia.gov/events [2].

Upcoming

- The Virginia Beach Angler s Club will hold its annual big-bass tournament from 6:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Lake Whitehurst in Norfolk. Registration is $20 per angler, and each will need a City of Norfolk permit to fish the lake. Permits are available at the city's Public Works Department and at Oceans East 2 Tackle Shop, 5785 Northampton Blvd., Virginia Beach.

For more info, call Melanie Bayford at (757) 631-1843.

- The 10th annual Virginia Institute of Marine Science art show and auction featuring Dr. Guy Harvey will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the institute's Chesapeake Bay Hall Plaza in Gloucester. Tickets are $100, and raffle tickets are $10. Proceeds benefit institute projects.

For more information, call (804) 684-7099 or go to www.vims.edu/events [3].

- The Virginia Beach Department of Parks and Recreation will hold a free family fishing clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 7 at Munden Point Park.

Registration is now open. For more information, call (757) 385-4461.

Results

From the Virginia Bassmasters largemouth bass fishing tournament held last weekend out of the Waterlilly Wildlife boat ramp in Coinjock, N.C.:

1. Rick Hodges, Knotts Island, N.C., 20.04 total pounds (including the lunker award winner at 6.07 pounds); 2. Ivan Morris, Virginia Beach, 15.09; 3. Dave Green, Chesapeake, 12.03. Top co-angler: Tom Tomlinson, Chesapeake, 4.06 total pounds.