Submitted by Stan Searfus, Islander Surf Coach, Coronado Optimist
Coronado High School participates in the Scholastic Surf Series (SSS) which is an organization that puts on surf contests up and down the coast of California. There are 5 divisions in San Diego County and the Islanders are in Division 3 with 7 other teams. The season consists of 5 contests where we compete head to head against one of those teams. We had a fine year and our record was 5-0.
At each contest after the team event the top surfers are sent into an individual contest that finishes in the afternoon. With this format the team and the individuals will be ranked through the season with trophies handed out to the top performers in 5 categories. Those are Mens and Women’s Shortboard, Men’s and Women’s Longboard, and a Co-ed Bodyboard. The full results can be seen at www.surfsss.org.
Our team this year consisted of Men’s Shortboarders Kristian Kocherga, Jason Maracle, Dylan Linde, Ben Outlaw, Jack Outlaw, Cole Quinlan, Liam Casey, Lance Mann, Tristian Richmond, Kobuk Vanhouten, and cameron Bartz. Women’s Shortboarder’s were Chrissy Seggerman, Danirose Hill, Gabi Robledo, Sydney Zoehrer and Evelyn Steiner. Men’s Longboarders were Ben Outlaw, Dylan Linde, Cole Quinlan and Liam Casey. Women’s Longboarders were Danirose Hill, Chrissy Seggerman, Sydney Zoehrer and Aine Dwyer. Our Bodyboarders were Charlie Tomlin and Jack Outlaw.
In addition to excelling as a team our students did great individually. In fact, Islander surfers finished the year at or near the top in all 5 categories.
Since we were the first place team in D-3 SD County, we earned a spot in the California State Surfing Championship in Oceanside this past weekend, 16-18 April. Never before has Coronado High School Surf Team done this so just getting in was an outstanding achievement.
We would be surfing against high schools from Half Moon Bay, Santa Barbara, Malibu,Torrance, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, San Clemente, Carlsbad, and San Dieguito. If you know anything about surfing in California, you understand our team was going up against some excellent surfing programs.
That brings us to Saturday in Oceanside, where the surf was 3-5 feet and good. The conditions were challenging but made it easy to see which teams were at the top of their skills. The format for this event was slightly different than the season as the SSS broke the contest into the 5 different categories where teams fought head to head for championships. Our 5 squads surfed well but with such strong competition, only the Women’s Longboard team advanced out of the first round. These three surfers were Sydney Zoehrer, Aine Dwyer and Chrissy Seggerman. As mentioned the other teams were top level but our Longboarders have been great all year as well.
In the first round the Islanders were going against San Dieguito HS from Encinitas. It was clear from the beginning that our kids were surfing very well. The judges agreed and Coronado took 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the heat and advancing to the semi finals. In the Semi’s CHS took on Edison HS from Huntington Beach. Both teams surfed well but the Islanders prevailed and were moving on to the Finals. In this final heat Coronado would be going against the defending Champions from San Clemente HS. Not only was San Clemente the defending champs, their team leader had won a World Champion Title from a huge contest in China earlier in the year! This is a team event so even though the opponents had a professional surfer, the Islanders paddled out and surfed at their normal high level. In the end, the Islanders were given 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and earned the State Championship. An awesome team win!
On Monday it was the time for the individuals to show their skills and Coronado had 8-9 students entered. This was arguably a more difficult competition as the surfers were from all the schools in the state, many who were specialists whose teams were not necessarily in the earlier contest. All of the Coronado students did fine and surfed great but this event had over 100 of the best surfers in California. Very nice performances were put in by Liam Casey and Kristian Kocherga in Shortboard and Sydney Zoehrer in Longboard but they were knocked out before the semi finals. There was one Islander who was clearly on a mission though and that was freshman Cole Quinlan.
Cole has been having an amazing year up to this point, finishing first in Longboard and second in Shortboard in the year end standings in our division. As the coach of the team, I was glad to see Cole enter both Shortboard and Longboard but knew it was going to be tough as this competition was bigger in number and higher in skill level than he has gone against during the season. Although Cole surfed very well in the Shortboard division, he was eliminated in the quarter finals. In the Longboard side of the contest, Cole was totally prepared and let his skill speak for him. In his first heat Cole scored a perfect 10 by one of the judges, a very rare occasion. That score set him up to plow his way through 2 more rounds and advance to the State Finals. It should be noted that most of the other 5 competitors were upperclassmen, many of whom have surf this event before. Cole was not intimidated and surfed like his hair was on fire! He caught 4 fantastic waves, two of which were big set waves and another actually got in the tube. It was quite a performance to say the least! His result was 3rd place, finishing behind 2 seniors. Major congratulations to Cole Quinlan, Sydney Zoehrer, Aine Dwyer and Chrissy Seggerman and the entire Coronado High School Surf Team.
As a footnote this team will graduate 4 seniors but has 8 freshmen so this program should return to the state championships many times into the future.
Stan Searfus, Islander Surf Coach, Coronado Optimist
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Related: The CW6 interviews a few Islanders.
