Living in Santa Cruz County, many enjoy surfing, especially a group of individuals that represent our school out on the ocean. SLVHS partakes in a county-wide Santa Cruz Mountain Surf Team. The Santa Cruz Mountain Surf Team is made up of 6 from our own San Lorenzo Valley High School, and students from many other high schools in our area. Ages on the surf team, and in the league, range from 13-17 years old.
Our own surf team is a combination of several schools from around the county. The Santa Cruz Mountain Surf Team consists of students from our own San Lorenzo Valley High School, Scotts Valley High School, St. Francis High School, as well as schools from over the hill. In the opening competition of the season, which took place on October 25, our surf team went head to head with the Harbor High and Carmel High team. The surfers from our school were proud of how the team surfed. Junior surfer Quinn Lydon said, “The season has gone well, we won the last competition. The environment of the competition was really good, the waves were about 6 to 7 feet.” The final score was 58-45 in favor of our surfers from San Lorenzo Valley. Contributing to this win were surfers April Martin-Hansen and Sophie Northcott. April Martin-Hansen won second place in the longboard competition, while Sophie Northcott also placed 2nd in the shortboard competition, as well as a 3rd in the longboard competition.
The Santa Cruz Mountain Surf Team was created in 2012 by April Martin-Hansen The surf team has constantly grown since its creation and this seems to be a consistent trend with the club. Many of those who participate on the surf team enjoy their experiences in not only the ocean during practices and during competitions, but also just spending time with their team. The team placed third in their first two years of competitive surfing and they placed fourth in the 2014 season.
In recent times the surf team has had star-surfers, April Martin-Hansen and Sophie Northcott perform exceptionally well and the team has faced waves up to six or seven feet tall. “I expect an improvement in our team by the end of the season and I expect to score a lot of points to help my team win our competitions,” said 11th grade student, Quinn Lydon.
It was a great start to the year for the surfers from SLV. The win over the Harbor High and Carmel High team helped with the positive view that the surfers have looking ahead into the season. Surfer Sophie Northcott has a very positive outlook looking ahead into the season saying, “Hopefully we are going to get some really good waves, and just keep having fun because we are not the best surfers because we are not right next to the ocean, but we do have the most fun.” With this positive and hopeful outlook, it is hard not to believe that the surf team will continue to succeed and compete as the year goes on.
As the Santa Cruz Mountain surf team’s season comes to a close, the surfers are competing at their very best. While there may only be five competitions, the team hopes to continue to improve.
By Wyatt Atchley, Ian Blair, and Andy Wise
The Claw 