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| Surf's up for Half Moon Bay team By Mark Foyer--[ markf@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 12:38 PM PST Junior Hank Moseley and sophomore Austin Murison can be excused for not wanting to talk about the Half Moon Bay High School Surfing team that much. They had their wetsuits on, their boards by their sides and the waves were good. "It's a great way to hang out with my friends," Murison said. Moseley agreed. The two then ran into the surf at Dune's Beach to catch some waves while the sun was still out. The team consists of 32 members, of which 20 will be competing, said Marty Phelps, one of the team's coaches The Cougars participated in their first meet Sunday, in Santa Cruz. They lost in the team competition to Scotts Valley, 65-56. Rachel Graham was the top individual, winning the Girls' Short Board Competition and finishing fourth in the Girls' Long Board Competition. Teammate Sam Vingo was sixth in the Girls' Short Board. Camille del Fierro also advanced to the semifinals. Moseley, Murison, Hide Maki and Todd Wilkins all advanced to the quarterfinals of their individual short board competition. The desire to have a surf team was there from the start. When the team was first announced, regular surfers turned out for the first meeting of the year. "I'm so happy to have a surfing team here," del Fierro said. "We all love to surf." The key was to find an organization to sanction the team. The Interscholastic Surfing Federation, based out of Carlsbad, serves that purpose. The ISF is not affiliated with California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for other high school sports in the state. The ISF was founded in 1988. According to its Web site, there are 78 schools that offer surfing and approximately 2,400 students participate. The season runs from October to February and the state championships take place in March. As can be expected, most schools that have surfing programs are located in beach communities such as San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. Locally, Carlmont and Hillsdale have programs. However, Half Moon Bay, just down the street from one of the biggest surfing contests in the world, didn't have a program. "Everywhere I ran into kids, they all said they wanted to have a program," Phelps said. The program costs money. For the surf team, the cost was $3,000 for insurance and fees. "Within a week, we had the money raised," Phelps said. That task finished, it was time for practice to begin. Some practices are like meets, in which surfers have up to 20 minutes on the water to surf. "We want to give the kids an idea of what to expect at a meet," Phelps said. Everyone on the team already knows how to surf. "So many people in our school surf," Graham said. As appreciative as the team members are to finally have a team, they are just as appreciative to have Phelps and Doug Acton serving as coaches and teacher Shawna McCartney serving as an advisor. "They are all doing this for the love of the sport," Graham said. "It's so cool to take time from their schedules to teach us." Half Moon Bay's next meet is Dec. 15 in Santa Cruz. |