Redondo’s Tate Curran battles opponents on land, sea and air

Tate Curran rips on a right for a high score at the Hermosa Beach Pier. Photo by Dennis Lippon

Tate Curran rips on a right for a high score at the Hermosa Beach Pier. Photo by Dennis Lippon

by Ed Solt

His cutbacks throw considerably more spray while his carves are a bit more gouging than his peers. From the beach, his old-school power surfing style easily leads spectators to think he is a surfer twice his age.

Not yet 17, Tate Curran has become a standout in the South Bay Scholastic Surfing Association, and also one of  the state’s top rated pole vaulters as a junior at Redondo Union High School.

During a family outing at Dockweiler Beach, on a proposition from his father Anthony, a lifelong surfer, Curran began his surfing career at the age of five.

“My dad said he’d give me a dollar for every wave I caught and rode,” Curran said. “After about $20 worth, I took a break. After my break, I wanted to go out and catch $20 worth more but my dad was out of cash.”

When he was eight years old, a jellyfish sting traumatized Curran.

Tate Curran set a personal best mark of 16 feet, 4 inches last Saturday. File photo

Tate Curran set a personal best mark of 16 feet, 4 inches last Saturday. File photo

“I didn’t touch the ocean for two years,” he said. “It’s when I moved from Manhattan Beach to south Redondo Beach a block from the beach that I began surfing again at age ten. I regained my confidence.”

Surfing came easy to Curran and is a sport linked to the family name. Timmy, Nathaniel, Josh, and Taylor Curran, a family of pro surfers from Oxnard, are his first cousins. Timmy, the eldest, surfed the World Championship Tour (now known as the World Surf Tour) in the late 90s to the early 2000s. He is a prototype for today’s surfers pioneering aerials as functional maneuvers.

“Even if Timmy wasn’t my cousin, he’s still my favorite surfer in the world,” Curran said. “I grew up totally idolizing him.”

Pole vaulting is another tradition that circles around the family name. Anthony was a two-time high school state champion and a legend at UCLA  where he is a volunteer pole vaulting coach.. He also runs “No Limit Sports Track and Field Club,” a series of clinics and camps that work with athletes ranging from middle school to the Olympic level.

Tate’s sister, Sara Curran, also was a star at Redondo High and is now one of the top pole vaulters for San Diego State University.

“I didn’t really get good at pole vaulting until halfway my sophomore year,” Tate Curran aid. “That’s when I said to myself, ‘Okay, it’s time to focus.’”

By focusing, Curran means training. He started hitting the gym and/or working the pole five to six days a week during the season. During the offseason, he cuts it to three days a week.

“All of this pole vaulting began to help my surfing,” he said. “Pole vaulting helps the legs for sure. It gives you the power to move around more spray.”

Despite his academic schedule and track practices, Curran still finds time to surf “every day, sometimes twice a day if there is a good swell.”

“I’ve been really impressed with how much and how quickly he’s improved. He knows how to put the board on a rail and surfs with a lot of power and flow,” said SBSSA league director Dickie O’Reilly. “All the more impressive considering the amount of time he spends flinging himself over a 15′ high bar at the track every day.”

He’s a triple threat for his high school surf team, competing in the shortboard, longboard, and bodyboard divisions.

Tate Curran, right, hopes to attend UCLA where he can be coached by his father and Bruin legend Anthony Curran. Photo courtesy of the Curran family

Tate Curran, right, hopes to attend UCLA where he can be coached by his father and Bruin legend Anthony Curran. Photo courtesy of the Curran family

“My dad has a great sense of style and power and had me learn on a 6’3. All my cousins learned on longer boards,” Curran said. “I progressed through the years to smaller equipment. My magic board now is a 5’8” Spyder ES BEE that’s super snappy and perfect for long drawn out turns.”

He rides a 9’0” longboard he deems “the Purple People Eater.” Longboarding to him is more for fun as he’s just “goofing around.”  

“Tate is arguably the most exciting surfer to watch on my team this year,” said Redondo Union High Surf Coach Duncan Avery. “He has never finished worse than second in any heat this year.”

For his morning practice three times a week, Curran surfs the Hermosa Beach Pier. He considers Topaz his local spot and his ideal wave when it’s head high and peaky. Kyle Beatty, Hudson Ritchie, and Trevor LaShure are in the local crew he loves sharing waves with.

“Tate’s an inspiration to surf with,” said Beatty, also an up-and-coming surf star. “Tate’s able to fit in five turns on a wave where most surfers couldn’t.”

Pole vaulting and surfing have taken Curran all around the world. He’s been going to Hawaii for the summer with his family since a young pup. In Mexico, he scored waves in Baja California at Las Gaviotas and at a spot two hours north from the border of Guatemala. In the summer, he traveled through Europe to compete in pole vaulting.

“It was an honor to be in the same field with the best juniors in the world,” he said. “People  were jumping in the 19s.”  

On Jan. 14, Curran competed at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev. The event invites the best of the best from all age groups in the United States. Curran set the bar high personally going for the highest jump among the Californian pole vaulters. In two attempts, he clipped the bar setting up one final attempt.

Tate Curran tackles another bar launching himself into his family traditions. Photo by Joe Gagnon

Tate Curran tackles another bar launching himself into his family traditions. Photo by Joe Gagnon

“I was nervous and the pressure was on,” he said. “There were a lot of college coaches and scouts watching.”

After clearing 15 feet 6 inches, landing and planting both feet, he celebrated like he pulled out of a perfect barrel to win the Pipe Master.

“I stood tall and claimed it with a big fist pump,” he said. “I was so stoked.”

At the Triton Invitational at San Clemente High School last Saturday, Curran improved his personal best mark by eight inches clearing the bar at 16’4”.

The height is the third best in the state this season but Curran hopes to surpass the mark Saturday at Mira Costa when he defends his title at the Mustang Relays.

Curran feels his ticket into a good college is through pole vaulting and hopes to be accepted into UCLA to be coached by his dad. Whatever college he ends attends, it needs to be close to the surf.

“To be a pole vaulter or a surfer, you have to be a little weird,” Curran said. “It’s the best two feelings in the world, the rush of clearing a high bar and being spit out of a barrel. There’s a moment when you are in the air or in the tube where time stands still. You crave finishing the vault and making the tube.”

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