Reality TV is edited, and feature films are scripted. If you want to find out what real "surfer girls," or wahines (wah-hee-nees), go through, the seventh annual East Coast Wahine Championships will give you a chance.

About 185 women and girls from across the country will hit the waves this weekend at Wrightsville Beach to prove their skill and meet up with old friends.

And you'll still get to see two familiar faces from television - April Grover and Molli Miller, former contestants on the MTV reality TV series Surf Girls, which aired earlier this year.

Ms. Grover will compete in the pro longboard division and her mother, Linda Grover, has entered the goddess division, which is for women ages 35 and older. Ms. Miller is in the advanced shortboard division.

Spectators should keep their eyes open for two returning surfers, Connie Arias, the defending champion in this division, and Sara Willis.

"I'd say there's going to be a battle between those two," said Anne Beasley, an event organizer.

Ainslee Wallace, however, might slip in and upset the competition, she said.

The Wahine Championships aren't all about competition, though. Ms. Beasley said each year, the event turns into a sort of family reunion for women surfers across the country.

"First off, the surfing world is a small world," she said.

Even though two surfers may live on opposite coasts, they've been to the same competitions and know many of the same people. An all-women's event gives them a chance to relax and catch up on life, while honing their skills.

Then, after so many years, you begin to see surfers develop their own skills and styles.

"I've watched so many of these girls over six years grow up. It's so funny because you see these little girls and you see them again and they're really rippin'," Ms. Beasely said.

It's not unusual to see mothers and daughters, like the Grovers, in the competition as well as sisters.

The Wahine Championships will be returning to Wrightsville Beach, where the contest started, after moving to Kure Beach last year.

"You can't beat that beach access (there)," Ms. Beasley said. "The main reason we left Wrightsville Beach was because they kept putting parking meters everywhere."

After talking with the town government, the Wahines have worked out the parking situation and will be back on their home waves again this year.

"The contest started there, and this year is No. 7," she said. "It's a lucky year, and we wanted to bring it back."

When the seventh annual East Coast Wahines Championship began Saturday, not only did locals compete, but surfers from all over the East Coast took part.

A television star also took in the action and competed in the Pro Longboard division. April Grover, who was on MTV's Surf Girls, traveled to Crystal Pier in Wrightsville Beach from Hawaii to compete in the event.

The MTV series, which consisted of 14 female surfers, was a cross between a reality soap opera and a surfing competition. The women lived with each other for 13 weeks and competed against one another to earn a wildcard entry in a World Championship Tour and a Roxy sponsorship.

Saturday's event is special to Ms. Grover, a 21-year-old Melbourne Beach, Fla., resident who is studying fashion design and promotion at the University of Hawaii, because it was the first event she ever competed in. In 1999, she finished second in the Novice Longboard competition.

"This was actually the first contest I ever did," Ms. Grover said. "I competed in it when I was 16 years old."

The event is not only for surfers, however, but for the families of the competitors as well. The contest is sponsored by many organizations, which give out prizes throughout the championships.

"This is a great family event," Ms. Grover said. "I came from Hawaii to come to this because it's my favorite contest."

Paula Bushardt, co-director of the event, has seen the competition grow since 1998, when she became co-director. That year the contest drew 111 competitors, while this year's has 178.

"We have a really big novice division, which is competitors competing for the first time ever in a championship," Ms. Bushardt said. "We had a lot of older girls in the Novice division as well as some younger girls."

Ms. Grover advanced out of the first heat of the Pro Longboarding division and will compete in today's semifinals starting at 8:30 a.m.

Lauren Hill, Maggie Willis and Erin Wall, who finished first through third respectively in last year's event, also advanced to today's semifinals to square off with Grover and the other semi-finalists.

As the seventh annual East Coast Wahine Championships at Wrightsville Beach came to a close, a multiple winner stood out as the event's best surfer.

Kelly Nicely, from Newport, won the pro longboard and advanced shortboard divisions, sweeping the events for both styles of board. Ms. Nicely, who has been competing in shortboarding for five years and has been longboarding for about a year, credited a reverse take-off - where the surfer paddles out toward the wave backward - as the deciding factor in the pro longboarding finals.

"I think that's what did it," Ms. Nicely said, "I guess because nobody else does things like that."

Ms. Nicely defeated last year's champion, Lauren Hill, for the pro longboarding championship, but credits her competitors for making the final very competitive.

"I was going out with very good people," Ms. Nicely said. "Lauren, Maggie (Willis) and Mimi (Munro) are all really good, so I knew I was going to have to do something that nobody else usually does."

April Grover, from MTV's Surf Girls, finished third in her semifinal heat in pro longboarding and didn't advance to the finals. Her mother, Linda, however, won the goddess longboarding division, for women older than 35.

Co-directors Paula Bushardt and Anne Beasley, who have been running the event since 1998, were very pleased with the championships.

"We were really hoping for a good contest since we brought it back to Wrightsville Beach and we are so happy we did," Ms. Beasley said.