Surfing Laguna: Give them a run for their money

Under gray skies and light winds, the Laguna Beach High School Surf Team met San Clemente High down at the popular surf break known as T-street in San Clemente last week.

The waves on offer for the competition were 2 to 4 feet high with textured shape and generally dumpy conditions. However, that didn’t slow down our squad, led by coaches Scott Finn and Alisa Cairns in fighting valiantly throughout the competition against arguably one of the most talented surf teams in the state.

Highlights

Girls

Leading the charge in the girls divisions was hometown hero Taylor Pitz, who managed to take first place in the girls’ shortboard and longboard divisions. Taylor’s extensive experience as a member of the elite Team USA national squad helped her negotiate the shifty conditions as she confidently ripped apart several wedgy peaks.

Boys

For the boys, Laguna senior and Team Captain Porter Hogan was on fire, destroying everything that came his way during the 15 heat and he eventually walked away with the victory over a stellar San Clemente line-up.

Porter had this to share when asked about his experience winning the heat: “Going into it I was nervous. San Clemente has the best team in California, but everything just fell right into place, from the board I was riding, which was my Rusty, to how relaxed I felt. I was really stoked with the way it turned out, it felt great.”

One-two punch

The very last heat of the day turned out to be one of the strongest for Laguna as senior Sean Kimball teamed up with freshman standout Teague Hamilton to topple a strong contingent of San Clemente’s local shredders.

Sean surfed a smart heat and managed to blast a fins-free wrap that the judges obviously appreciated and awarded him with the second-place position.

Teague hustled to track down a shapely little right hander just before the buzzer sounded and executed several clean hits that earned him a very respectable third-place finish.

Final Results

After a full morning of competition and all the points were tallied, the San Clemente squad managed to pull out the hometown victory, but not before Laguna’s young squad managed to show some serious signs of improvement as the season gets going into full swing.

CHRIS WILLIAMS is a surfing coach and Laguna Beach resident, and father of four surf-crazy sons. He can be reached at chris@soulsurfingschool.com or (949) 497-5918.