A Swell Surf Season

Lucia Ruiz, Features Editor|March 12, 2021

This surf season, like everything else in this past year, has been very different from previous years. However, while there are unideal changes, there are also good changes coming for the surfers of PVHS. For instance, the conditions this year have been very good. 

“This surf season has been really good, [there were] really good waves. There have been really good barrels this year. Last year wasn’t this intense,” freshman Parker Evans said. 

Freshman Adam Hardesty agrees. He says that the consistent, big waves and good weather have been ideal for surfing, even saying that “this surf season has been one of the best we’ve had probably in the last decade.”

“The Santa Ana winds, or east winds, coming from the inland going into the ocean make the waves a bit cleaner and less bumpy,” Hardesty said. 

While ocean conditions are great, some other conditions are not. Safety measures are easily maintained while surfing in the water, however participating in the surf team does not allow for social distancing or masks. 

“There was no surf team so we didn’t get to participate in that,” Hardesty said.

While the surfers are not pleased, they understand that it is critical to maintain proper safety guidelines and surfing on a team does not make that easy. 

“We don’t have a team this year and there are no tryouts or anything like that, so it’s just on your own and sometimes you forget to go [surf],” junior Coral Hugoboom said.

However, not all of the changes for the surfers have been for the worse this year. 

“I’ve noticed a lot more people starting to surf because they have more time,” Hardesty said. 

Agreeing, Hugoboom said “Now that it’s quarantine, I kind of get to go whenever I want, after school too. We have more time.”

With more time and energy to put towards surfing, Hugoboom has tried a few new things in her surfing and even gotten others involved.

“I really enjoy being able to go out whenever I want after school and it’s a lot nicer to just be able to go out [surfing] with friends some more. I’ve even been teaching my friends how to surf because we have some free time,” Hugoboom said.