Around Town: Huntington surf contest to help surfing pastor’s cancer fight

A surf competition Sunday on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier will raise money to help Blaine “Sumo” Sato, the surfing pastor of H2O Community Church in Huntington Beach, pay medical bills from his ongoing fight with cancer.

Sato, the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Department’s official pastor, was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame last year.

The Sumo Team Challenge will be held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with teams of four people each — one man, one woman, a longboarder and a grom (15 or younger) — surfing against one another.

The event — organized by Rick “Rockin’ Fig” Fignetti,, Dave Reynolds, Don Bigelow, Joe Pearson and Don Ramsey — also will include a beach cleanup, a costume contest and a chance for participants to surf while dressed like Sato.

An awards ceremony will follow at Cruisers on Fifth Street in Huntington Beach.

Registration for the contest has closed, according to the event’s website. To donate or for more information, visit Rockin’ Fig Surf Headquarters, 316 Main St., Huntington Beach, or call (714) 536-1058.

Catch a wave in costume Saturday

A Newport Beach tradition, the Blackie’s Halloween costume surf contest, will be held Saturday at Blackie’s beach near the Newport Pier.

The festivities will begin at about 7 a.m.

H.B. student takes second-place award in STEM competition

Spencer Green, a student at The Pegasus School in Huntington Beach, took a second-place engineering award during the Broadcom MASTERS middle school competition in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Spencer won $2,500 to be used at a STEM summer camp.

The 13-year-old eighth-grader engineered a device that translates movement into an electronic sound. The register of the sound depends on the intensity of the movement. Faster movement equates to a lower-sounding pitch and vice versa.

The invention has potential applications for athletes in training who can wear the device and an earphone to listen to the sound and track their movements.

The Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) is a program founded and produced by the Society for Science & the Public to encourage middle school students to turn their personal interests in STEM into participation in science fairs, studies in high school and college and eventually STEM careers.

O.C. assessor to speak at Wake Up Newport meeting

November’s Wake Up Newport meeting next week will feature Orange County Assessor Claude Parrish discussing taxes.

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce event will be held from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. Nov. 2 at the Newport Beach Public Library’s Friends Room, 1000 Avocado Ave.

Admission is free. For more information, call (949) 729-4400.