Ryan Ulrich
Although surfing is generally thought of as an individual sport, the South Bay Boardriders Club is bringing the community together by hosting many different surfing events.
The South Bay Boardriders Club is a local organization which holds events such as big wave surf contests, as well as South Bay Surf Series competitions. It held the seventh annual ET Surf Shop and Chili Surfboards Surf Contest in Manhattan Beach on Feb 10th.
“The events are always a fun time because when your not surfing you’re hanging at the beach with friends,” Mira Costa junior Alex Fry said. “The Boardriders Contests are always a good way to see how other kids in the South Bay are in comparison to your abilities.”
The competition included longboard and shortboard divisions for both men and women five years old and up. This year both Mira Costa students and alumni competed in the event.
“I compete in the juniors division which is for male surfers who are 18 or under but I also compete in the open men’s division and there are around 10 other divisions,” Fry said.
The waves on the morning of the competition were were very small and not ideal for competition. Throughout the day, onshore winds caused the waves to become choppy and hardly rideable
“The waves were pretty bad all day to be honest,” Freshman Joey Samuelian said. “It’s a bummer when the waves are bad for an event because you still have to try and get some good ones but it becomes way more difficult.”
This year several Costa surf team members advanced to the finals in their respective divisions. Freshman Daniel Boos won the Juniors division While Fry took home third, Samuelian took fourth, and Junior Chad Parks took home sixth. Sophomore Megan Seth got second in the women’s division and the junior women’s division, and Samuelian also took home second in the boys division.
“I was happy to make both finals,” Samuelian said. “It was just nice to catch some waves that I could do some turns on because there was a lot of closeouts.”
All of the finalists received plaques as well as prize bags with goods from the event sponsors. Prizes included Spy sunglasses, Chili Surfboard Traction Pads and Stance socks. All competitors received lunch from El Gringo, and there was free coffee from Later Days Coffee company. The event also included a free surfboard demo where competitors could try surfing on a Chili Surfboard.
“The Board demo was cool because they had a lot of sick boards to try,” Parks said. “I didn’t get a chance to ride any of them because I was surfing heats most of the day, but they were nice boards.”
The next event in the South Bay Boardriders Surf Series will be held by Surf Concepts at El Porto in Manhattan Beach on March 4th. All of the division winners will gain 1000 points in hopes of winning the seasons tour.
“I hope I am able to win the juniors division for the whole season,” Fry said. “I have won a few contests before but we will see what happens.”
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