Harrington Leading ESA Points Race

OCEAN CITY- With one major contest left on the Eastern Surfing Association- Delmarva calendar next month, young upstart Dillon Harrington is holding on to the lead in the points standings in the open division after a strong showing at Sea Witch Surf Fest last week.

Harrington, just 15, of Ocean City, is the leader in the prestigious open division, leading several surfers much older than he is. He came in second at Sea Witch, held at 48^th Street on Sunday, October 26, to maintain a slim lead on several surfers closing the gap.

With one event to go, Harrington has accumulated 3,363 total points, good enough for the lead in ESA Delmarva's men's open division, which, as its name implies, is open to surfers of all ages. He leads his closest competitor and good friend Travis Knight, who has collected 3,219 points, by a mere 144 points as the contest season winds down. Knight took first place at Sea Witch, closing the gap on Harrington. Rounding out the top six in the open division are Matt Meinhardt (2,977 points), Waldon Remington (2,889), Roy Harrell (2,500) and Jamie Crosby (2,376).

While local bragging rights are on the line for Harrington and his close competitors, there is a new wrinkle this year in the open division. The points leader at the end of the contest season, which concludes in the first week of December with the annual Ho Ho Surf-Off, will punch his ticket to Puerto Rico next spring to compete in the ESA regionals.

If Harrington holds on to the points lead in the open division and advances to Puerto Rico for regionals, it could jumpstart what he hopes will be a professional career in surfing. At only 15, he has already collected some impressive accolades in the sport and reaching the ESA regionals could set him on a path toward a professional surfing career.

Already, Harrington has attracted a lot of attention in the sport with major sponsorships from companies like Billabong, Von Zipper and Hawaiian Board Company, to name a few. He is also being sponsored by another local surfer and sales representative in the industry, Brendan Hanley.

While Harrington is holding on to a tenuous lead in the men's open division, he is more comfortably ahead in the Junior Men's Division, which is made up of young surfers ages 15-18. Going into the Ho Ho Surf Off, Harrington leads the division with 3,529 points, followed by Meinhardt at 3,116 points.

The Ho Ho Surf-Off is set for December 6-7 at a location to be determined later by wave conditions. It will either be held on the north side of the Indian River Inlet or in Dewey Beach.