Surf wipes out in State Championships due to bad weather conditions, small waves

By Claire Gunning

Theme Editor

Rain and wind aren’t the most typical surfing conditions, but the Mira Costa surf team had to tough it out during its most recent competition in the National Scholastic Surfing Association State Championships March 6-7, at Trestles state beach in San Clemente.

In the competition, Costa’s Bay League varsity team was split into a varsity and junior varsity team  due to the limited amount of contestants allowed in the competition. Each team consisted of six male short boarders, two female  short boarders, and a long boarder. Costa Varsity placed ninth out of 10 schools.

“Varsity did terrible during the competition,” surf coach Tracy Geller said.

Bad weather made it tough for the competitors to perform. The onshore wind caused the waves to become choppy and created a current that dragged many competitors south of the contest boundary, according to junior Andy Large.

“During the competition, the weather was terrible, and it was raining the entire time,” Large said. “It was hard to catch waves with such a strong current dragging us south of the contest area all day.”

Junior Matt Hodges and  freshman  Kyra Williams were the only varsity surfers who advanced past the first heat. Hodges was eliminated before making it to the finals, while Williams placed sixth overall in girls varsity.

“The waves were weird, but there were still fun rights coming in throughout the day; you just had to be picky about which ones you took,” Hodges said.

During the competition, sophomore Lauren Friedrich placed first for junior varsity girls and junior Amelie Vegnolle placed third. In addition, senior Peter Neal was able to win the junior varsity longboarding division.

“There was some tough competition, but I was happy with the way I was surfing,” Neal said.

The surf team’s most recent competition was scehduled to be the South Bay Surfing Scholastic Association All Stars competition on March 19 but was cancelled due to a lack of ridable waves and will be rescheduled for a date after April 8.

“I got an email of the competition being cancelled because of the lack of surf,” Large said. “The team is used to competitions being cancelled because of bad weather and a  lack of rideable waves in the contest area.”