South Bay Board Riders Club steps up in 2011 with contests for young surfers
Surf classes at the high schools and middle schools are primarily for kids who already surf. Summer surf camps are a good introduction, but learning to surf requires more than a week, or even a summer.
As a result, the small percentage of local kids who do learn to surf, learn generally on their own. Advice from other surfers is largely limited to “paddle hard, then spring to your feet.”
This is like telling a little leaguer facing a fast ball for the first time to “swing when the ball crosses the plate,” with no advice on what bat to use and what to do with your eyes, feet, hips and arms.
In 2011, the South Bay Board Riders Club stepped up with a program to meet the needs of aspiring surfers. The two year old club’s mission statement says, in part, that it is dedicated to “introducing families, youth and our community to all aspects of ocean activities.”
The club is modeled after the Australian surf clubs, which are credited with making many Australians the most competitively successful surfers in the world.
Last summer the club held five contests with divisions for groms (12 and under) and micro groms (9 and under). This season’s contest series began Dec. 4 at26th StreetinManhattan Beach. Despite cold water and cold air, 48 groms and mico groms competed, arguably the largest number of young surfers in aSouthBaycontest, ever. Five more contests are scheduled over the next five months. Contestants don’t need to be club members.
For young competitive surfers such as Rachel Tominaga and Noah Collins, both members of the Mira Costa surf team, the SBBC contest series is an opportunity to compete without having to travel up and down the state.
After Tominaga won the SBBC Junior Girls division contest last March, her mother Karen told contest organizers, in an email, “We travel around to WSA and NSSA, Jr. contests a lot, so it’s really nice to finally have some contests in our own back yard.” She ended the email by offering to volunteer at future contests.
For still younger surfers and their families, the contests are an opportunity to meet other beginning surfers.
Like many of the dads, contest director Matt Walls pushed his 9-year-old son Kieran into the waves during last summer’s competition. During this month’s season opener, Kieran, along with many of the other micro groms from last season, had progressed to paddling into waves on their own.
Some entire families compete in the contests, including microgram Noah Steinmetz and his mom and dad Susan and Kurt; and the Silva kidsDaytonand Mason and parents Mark and Diane.
For kids whose parents don’t surf, older club members are available to push the kids into waves and offer advice on everything from board selection (go big) to how to get to your feet (back foot first), how to turn (from the hips, where the power is, just like in baseball, golf and swimming) and where to focus your eyes (on the wave in front of you. Look for a line and don’t look down, unless you want to go down, just like in motorcycle racing).
Prior to each grom and microgram heat, SBBC member Derek Levy has the young surfers introduce themselves to one another. He explains how rides are judged (only the best two, even if a surfer catches 10), what the judges are looking for (size, length, turns and cutbacks), how to recognize rips (to get outside quickly), where to sit in the line up, and what to do if someone gets hurt (forget the contest, go help).
This summer, Levy said, the club plans to offer classes for young surfers during the club’s Friday evening pot luck get togethers on the beach. The Friday evenings are also an opportunity to pass along the fast growing kids’ wetsuits and boards. Kids who show up for instruction do not need to be club members.
South Bay Boardriders is modeled after the Australian surf clubs, which are credited with making many Australians the most competitively successful surfers in the world.
For more information visit SouthBayBoardriders.com. ER