A trio of SJHHS surfers finished in first place in the Capistrano Coast League finals at Salt Creek Beach. The boys and girls Stallion surf teams placed first in both shortboard and in longboard.
Ethan Howard (12) won the Boys Longboard competition. He credits practice as being essential in his performance during the league title contest.
“We practice three times a week, no matter how bad or good the waves are. The consistency is pretty key. Just getting out there and honing in skills. A lot of the times the competitions are waves that are a little better than our own. If you can surf with two or fours [fins] is good, you could surf any wave on longboard or shortboard,” said Howard.
As a team, boys surf were overall league champions.
“It [winning league] shows that the whole team is a solid team and everybody plays a part in each victory,” said boys shortboard winner David Gibson (12).
Coaches Nate Roberts and Corey Stough ensure that their athletes go out and catch waves; no matter the severity of the environment.
“I think the biggest thing is that they force us to get out there even if it’s bad. A lot of the other schools, when the conditions are kinda iffy, they’ll cancel practice,” said Howard.
On the day of the event, the waves could not have been better at Salt Creek Beach. The immaculate conditions gave the surfers freedom to feature their skills.
“At Salt Creek, when you have the lined up conditions, you have long rides and like a really open face to do waves. So it’s not a wave where you just do one maneuver and it’s over. It’s more like you have the opportunity to do like a lot of cutbacks for a lot of those strides and like really showcase what you can do…You can showcase however you are,” said Howard.
For the girls team, a sophomore shined in both competitions. Gwyneth Lyon (10), had two first place finishes in longboard and shortboard.
“Staying consistent is not always easy when it comes to surfing. I have learned that you are going to take a lot of losses but you have to continue to take those losses and build to get better. I have so much support from friends and family which is so amazing. But staying locked in is focusing on the fact that surfing is dynamic and I have to be willing to change it up every once in a while,” said Lyon.
Stability can be hard to come by in a sport like surfing. Nate Roberts and Corey Stough are to thank for the impressive results by Stallion Surfing at the league finals.
“Both those coaches definitely deserve a lot of credit. They have us training and running mini[ature] heats against each other to be prepared for the competitions. Not only do they prepare us physically but also mentally. Surfing is a lot of mental work and having confidence that you can go out and try your very best.”
Other top performers at the Capistrano Coast finals were Ethan Bradley (11) who finished fourth in boys shortboard while Eden Voris (10) finished third in girls shortboard.
