In the winter morning air and the water at 62℉, which I find freezing, Millikan’s surf team isn’t afraid of a little chill. The average morning for a “free surfer”, meaning they do not participate in competitions, may be waking up early, getting to Bolsa Chica Tower 20 by 6:45 am, and leaving the beach around 8:15 am. They are free to practice surfing and are given tips and pointers to improve.
There are also competition surfers who, unlike free surfers, don’t practice at Bolsa Chica and instead make their way down to Huntington Beach Cliffs.
Competitions start in October and end in December, and are once a week against Wilson, Mater Dei, Corona del Mar, Los Al, and Orange Lutheran.
“We have been able to get some close seconds overall and many of our top surfers are winning their individual heats, but we will keep it up. Some of our top surfers who win heats consistently are, Jordan Von Leffern, Brody Shaw, Maddon Strong, Ty Jameison, Zack Rick, and Colin Logan,” says John Fast, the surf coach and a U.S. History teacher here at Millikan.
For girls who are interested in competing, you can email Mr. Fast about the all-girls competitive season that happens in the Spring too.
For those who have never seen a surf competition, they start at 6:45 am and end at 8:30 before school. Most of the competitions that Millikan’s team joins take place at Bolsa Chica Tower 20, but a couple are at Huntington and Newport Beach.
The competition is organized into different heats and different types of sections. In those heats, Millikan surfers go into the water against other surfers.
“We have about eight heats, we have four boys [who] shortboard, with three competitors in each heat. The heats go for about 15 minutes,” says Fast.
“There’s three judges that score the rides. You can catch up to eight waves and for each wave, they’ll score you. The more
fluid and the more moves you do the higher you score. We also have a girl’s longboard section, a boy’s longboard section, and a bodyboard section,” added Fast.
“For bodyboarding, it’s not technically surfing, but it’s the same movements lying down. [I’m in] one heatin the competition [where] I catch waves on the bodyboard and do tricks too. I do 360 spins or there’s one called a Rollo,” says Elias Hershfield, a QUEST senior on the Millikan surf team.
“[Surf] is a great chance to get down to the beach, interact with nature, [and] meet your friends. If you’re interested in joining the surf team you can talk to Mr. Fast, who you can find near bungalow 557 at lunch.
Jude • Jan 10, 2024 at 10:03 am
I really enjoyed Reading this article because it was very informative and seems
like a great source of information for someone who wanted to know more about the surf team at Millikan. Being a surfer and a surf enthusiast I thought this article was very accurate and even fun to read because the author used a lot of descriptive words that were relevant to the topic. This made the article much more fun to read and I hope all future texts will be just as great as this one.
I especially enjoyed this article because they added information about the boy’s and the girl’s competitors which was interesting to see the comparison between the two. I also liked how they included quotes and first hand looks from the team itself which gave me and future readers a better understanding of the things that the surfers do.
Sofia Uribe • Dec 22, 2023 at 12:16 pm
The article provides insightful information regarding the status of Millikan’s surf team and the surfers who participate in it. The author recognizes the efforts of each surfer, mentioning that it must take substantial energy to wake up early and surf in cold water for competitions. Surfing can be a demanding sport, so it is important that we recognize surfers, and truly all athletes, for their individual commitment and skill to the sport.
I appreciate that the article defined surfing terms and gave information about the various components of a surfing competition. The terms for each sport can be confusing, so it was helpful that the article gave clarification. It would have been nice for the article to include past tournaments or competitions in order to compare it with present-day. Moreover, the success of the surfing competition is great news. It will hopefully boost morale in our school and serve as an inspiration to other teams.
Juliette Montiel • Dec 22, 2023 at 9:43 am
The article does an excellent job of explaining the technicalities of being on Millikan’s surf team. As it goes into detail about how surf competitions are held and completed, it becomes more clear just what it means to be on surf. With a less common sport like surfing, it’s hard to consider even joining the team when little is known about how it works. However, this article sheds light on the simplicity of the surf team. The author also offers information on opportunities for non-competitive surfing and upcoming competitions for girls. It does well to advertise the sport to Millikan students and make it an appealing possibility. The addition of direct quotes from the surf team coach about Millikan’s progress shows that there is lots of support given to team members even when the competition gets tough. The author makes it easy for students who are interested in surfing to give it a shot by providing information on how to contact the coach.
This article provides a perspective about Millikan’s surf team that isn’t represented much elsewhere. Bhree Walker does a brilliant job in this article with incorporation of multiple sources and crucial information while maintaining a light-hearted and encouraging tone.
Luke Gossage • Dec 22, 2023 at 9:27 am
On December 7th 2023 Bhree Walker wrote the article Millikan Surf Heating Up the Competition. In the article they explain the millikan surf teams content and efforts to compete in the local surfing competition which is held between many schools including, “Wilson, Mater Dei, Corona del Mar, Los Al, and Orange Lutheran.” The author does an outstanding job describing the conditions for the surfers in case the article is viewed by an outsider of the topic. At 62* F at bolsa chica tower 20 at 6:45AM the surfers can practice freely. You would need to wake up 2 hours before school starts and drive out to the beach to practice the sport in the freezing cold weather. This shows the dedication and stride of the surfers. For the actual competition the author interviewed the coach of the millikan surf team, Mr Fast. The information was gathered,” “We have about eight heats, we have four boys [who] shortboard, with three competitors in each heat. The heats go for about 15 minutes,”. The author does a great job gaining primary sources for evidence and interviewing people. If I could change one thing about the article from my perspective I would include more information about the challenges in surfing and the difficulty of learning and perfecting the skill. For people who view surfing as fun and exciting but don’t know where to start. This would be a great addition to helping them understand more.
Kai Yamamoto • Dec 13, 2023 at 9:21 pm
Hey, I think you did a great job in gathering the information for this report Bhree! The different sources are important for understanding the surfing culture at Millikan. I just have a few grammatical suggestions, such as the end quotes in the last paragraph and saying “they start at 6:45 am and end at 8:30 am.” But other than that I think it’s great! Keep it up 😉