Conditions for the Santa Cruz Scholastic Surf League’s opening contest of 2015-2016 were challenging, to say the least. When autumn swells from North Pacific storms hit the Santa Cruz coastline, Manresa Beach can get some heaving walls of whitewater, making the paddle out to the lineup a test of strength and courage even before a surfer spins around and takes the plunge down one of the rapidly-closing faces. On Sunday, October 25, local high school athletes from the Santa Cruz Mountains Surf Team braved just such conditions in team-on-team heats against the Harbor High/Carmel High team and prevailed with a 58-45 point win.
The Santa Cruz Mountains team currently includes students from San Lorenzo Valley High School, St. Francis High (Watsonville), and several schools over the hill. Standouts contributing to their win on Sunday were: Sophie Northcott (SLV High) 2nd place women’s shortboard; and 3rd place women’s longboard; April Martin-Hansen (SLV High) 2nd place women’s longboard; Luke Colosi (St. Francis/Watsonville) 1st place men’s shortboard, 2nd place men’s longboard; Paul Colosi (St. Francis/Watsonville) 2nd place men’s shortboard — Heat 2; Liam Rielly (St. Francis/Mt. View) 1st place men’s longboard, 2nd place men’s shortboard — Heat 1.
After the team heats, top finishers from all schools in the surf league advanced through some grueling rounds of individual competition. Conditions grew intense for the semifinals as the swell built steadily, and by the finals, a low tide added to the rising wave height meant surfers faced steep drops down big faces into about four feet of water.
“In the finals it was more a matter of surviving than surfing,” according to SLVHS senior, Sophie Northcott. Northcott snagged several sizeable waves while some opponents chose not to take off at all, and she took second place overall in women’s shortboard, besting nearly all top competitors in the region. Also making it through the finals were Santa Cruz Mountains surfers, Casey Walsh of Los Altos Hills, who entered the contest as an alternate and surfed her way through five heats to a 5th place finish in women’s shortboard, and her sister Kelly Walsh, a freshman at Woodside Priory School, who also started as an alternate and ended up 6th overall in women’s longboard.
