Surfing Laguna: Laguna tangles with Dana Hills

Salt Creek Beach served as the battleground between rivals Laguna Beach and Dana Hills high schools Thursday morning for the final team competition of the season.

The last time these two teams met was in October, when Laguna had taken undefeated Dana Hills’ powerful men’s shortboard division in a noteworthy and exciting upset.

Both share Salt Creek as their “home court” for practice and competition, so bragging rights were definitely on the line as many of these competitors see each other out in the lineup daily.

Coach Alisa Cairns shared the highlights from the meet and the season after the morning’s competition.

“The waves for today’s competition were small but clean and although we lost the overall meet, we did manage to accomplish some great things within the various divisions, including once again, winning the men’s shortboard division,” Cairns said.

Surfing Laguna: Standout performers for the Laguna team today?

AC: In the shortboard division we enjoyed another first-place finish from Sean Kimball, while Victor Pakpour, Dane Zaranelli and Porter Hogan got seconds, while Adam Mejia, Adam Redding Kaufman and Hunter Smith each got third-place results. Also Taylor Pitz, who accomplished a huge feat by winning her shortboard heat and capping a perfect season, going 6-0!

SL: Wow, that’s some great shortboard results, including several from younger members of the team who have been a bit quiet this year.

AC: Yes, definitely. We have a very promising future with this young team, and overall this has been a great season, with many victories within the team and improvements from all the kids. The team spirit is really strong as well.

SL: What’s ahead for the team in the near term?

AC: Next week are the league finals, and we are sending some of our top individual performers down to Trestles to battle it out against the best young talent in the region. We have reigning South Coast League champ Taylor Pitz, as well as standout seniors in Porter Hogan and Sean Kimball, who consistently brought in great results this season.

SL: Sounds like Laguna will be well represented!

AC: We are looking forward to it and are hoping to see some strong results.

For more information and complete team results, check out the official Laguna Beach Surf Team blog at www.lbsurfteam.edublogs.org.

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.