New Zealand

Judy Louie took in some sightseeing in New Zealand recently. But that wasn’t the extent of her trip. The Corona del Mar resident also helped a U.S. women’s tennis team to a bronze medal. Louie won three doubles matches with her partner Carol Clay of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., as part of the Americans’ third-place finish in the Alice Marble Cup, an international tournament for 60-year-old women in New Zealand. Louie’s team, a group from the United State Tennis Assn.

For seasonal lifeguards Jesse Heydorff and Alex Scurr, traveling abroad is nothing new; they toured Europe together. But for their next trip, the longtime buds will journey in another direction, crossing the Pacific Ocean to the shores of Northern New Zealand as the next participants in the California/New Zealand Lifeguard Exchange. Now until the spring, Scurr, 23, a resident of Costa Mesa and Heydorff, 24, of Los Alamitos, will piggyback the best Kiwi lifeguards all along the coast, learning new techniques and even getting their hands on some new technology.

Daily hardships and family sacrifices have been incurred in order for Kevin Ah-Hi to pursue the chance to earn a free college education in the United States. So, Saturday, with his father in the stands, having flown in from Idaho, Ah-Hi was more than happy to show he, too, was carrying his share of the load. Carry, and carry, and carry he did. An Orange Coast College-record 48 carries later, Ah-Hi had amassed 266 rushing yards, just nine shy of the school single-game record, while helping the Pirates earn a 20-14 triumph over Mission Conference American Division rival Long Beach at OCC. After being blanketed with congratulations from teammates and coaches from both teams, and also dealing with the media after Saturday’s game, Ah-Hi was eager to share the experience with his father, Vena.

With the amount of injuries, defections, suspensions and coaching-staff turnover the UC Irvine women’s basketball program has experienced the last three seasons, Coach Molly Tuter might have expected Governor Schwarzenegger to show up any day with an offer of disaster relief. Instead, Tuter and her players have kept their heads down, kept their rehabilitation appointments, and kept churning toward a time when someone might be made to pay for their collective misfortune. That time may have arrived this season.

The blood that remained cool amid the cold now flows through Bob Ctvrtlik. It’s in his veins, the lines run, too, through his three sons. That blood that kept Josef Ctvrtlik alive while steps away from a torturous death, resides somewhere deep in his youngest son. How does Bob Ctvrtlik block out the periphery and finish the task at hand? How is he able to ignore turbulence for the sake of reaching a destination? Why does his life seem so picture perfect, though there is reason to feel gloom?

Standardizing lifeguard ranks and training methods dominated the discussion when Newport Beach lifeguards hosted the annual California Surf Life Saving Assn.’s board of directors meeting Thursday. About 75 representatives from 28 lifeguard agencies from Santa Cruz to San Diego gathered in the Balboa Pavilion. Three Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards were honored at the meeting for their work saving a friend who suffered a major neck injury in the surf of San Onofre. Kylie Cuccinotti, Paige Bisson, and Carley Zylsta were honored for assisting a Junior Lifeguard who seriously injured her neck.

COSTA MESA — Josh Tuz's game is about pressure. As he advances in the 15th annual Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic, he employs it constantly. Pressure is put on his tennis opponents the moment they walk on the court and see the 6-foot-4 Costa Mesa resident. "Wait, is he really supposed to be in the 16-and-under division?" they probably ask themselves. More pressure is added when Tuz unleashes a big first serve then comes to the net behind it, utilizing the seemingly lost art of serve-and-volleying.

LONG BEACH — It was too bad the cannon blasting off goodbyes at the last start of the Transpacific Yacht Race couldn't be loaded with gusts of wind and rays of sunshine. The third and final start of the 2,225 nautical-mile race from San Pedro to Honolulu began with the usual fanfare, but overcast skies made for a gray day, though the sun started to peak through the clouds later in the afternoon. And with wind speeds of only three to four knots, the fastest 23 of the 74 boats in the race stalled in the water once their sails were raised Sunday for the 44th biennial race.