South Bay Boardriders announces scholarships

When the South Bay Board Riders was founded a decade ago ago its focus was on contests for all age. Its Big Wave Challenge award night recognized surfers who rode the previous winter’s biggest waves. The awards night began the annual Hermosa Beach Surfer Walk of Fame weekend.

Over the years, as the club expanded into offering scholarships, beach cleanups, and video productions, its annual Surfer Walk of Fame Weekend awards night also expanded.

This year’s SBBC Awards night on Friday, April 26, began with SBBC board member d Doug Smith announcing the winners of the seventh annual SBBC academic scholarships. The club has awarded over $40,000 to higher education-bound students.

The Jimmy Miller Foundation, which partners with SBBC also presented a scholarship.

This year’s SBBC and JMF scholarship recipients were:  Alex Meyer, Santa Monica High; Asher Thompson, Mira Costa; Cayden Meza, Blue Ridge Academy; Jake Plourde, Mira Costa; Lana Gilligan, West High; Olivia D’Angelo, Redondo High; Quincy Fredriksz, Mira Costa High; and Tea Trent (Jimmy Miller Scholarship), Mira Costa High;  Avery Balk, Bishop Montgomery; Graham Slater, Santa Monica High; Pierce O’Leary, Palos Verdes High.

The club also presented the Howard Eddie Award for selfless service to the surfing community. The award is presented by B2 Insucances Derek and Keith Brewer and SBBC contest director Matt Walls. Eddie was a Hermosa resident who volunteered his time to video the Brewers, Walls, Greg Browning (a 2024 SWOF inductee) and other neighborhood kids in the late 1980s until his death in 1993.

This Year’s Howard Eddie Award recipient was Annie Graziano, a filmmaker who like Eddie, donates her time to video young surfers. ER