SURFING LAGUNA: Laguna surfers leading the pack

This past weekend four “Surfing Laguna” alumni earned top honors in surf competitions across the state of California. Down at Oceanside Harbor, last week’s featured surfer Leah Pakpour took home first place in the ISF State Championships Girls Shortboard division. Leah has been on a competitive tear as of late and was fresh off her recent victory at the Billabong Grom Comp up in Huntington Beach.

Here’s what Leah had to say about the State Championships: “I went down to the event on Saturday to support our Thurston Team, then I surfed my heats on Sunday. I surfed the first round, the quarters, the semis and then the finals. I was so happy when they called my name as the winner! The best part was having my coach Alisa Cairns and her family there to support me, as well as the Thurston surf team too. Everyone cheered me on in the final!”

A bit closer to home was the NSSA Season Championships at Huntington Beach Pier. Representing Laguna Beach was 17-year-old Laguna Beach native Sean Kimball, who has been working hard on his contest surfing this year and it’s starting to pay some serious dividends.

I caught up with Sean regarding the victory up in Huntington Beach and he shared his thoughts on the comp: “I have never won a surf competition before, and when we got on stage for the awards ceremony it was surreal. The contest organizers have the six competitors from the finals stand up together and then they call out the results from sixth place to first. As the announcer said the names I could feel the adrenaline surging through my body as I realized I might have actually won the comp! They got to second place and called another competitor’s name, that left me as the winner! I still can’t believe it and I am so stoked! Thanks to my shaper Brian Bencz at Laguna Republic who provided me with a perfect board for the conditions. Also God, who gave me the gift of surfing.”

The Soul Groms jumped in the RV and made the long beautiful trek up to the Hook in Santa Cruz to surf in the seventh stop of the CSF contest series.

Two Laguna Beach High School freshman made their mark on Saturday with outstanding results in their respective divisions. Zach Williams fought valiantly through the challenging conditions to secure the first place trophy in the Fish division by linking together several long waves with equal parts style and fury. Said Zach when asked about the comp, “I was so stoked to find a couple fun waves in the final. This is my first win, so I’m on cloud nine right now!”

In the Boy’s Division it was Laguna shredder Adam Mejia pulling out all the stops to take home the first place hardware. When asked his thoughts on the win Adam shared: “I tried to surf smart, get in two or three good maneuvers and finish my waves. I was stoked to do good against some really accomplished local Santa Cruz surfers.”

The future of Laguna’s competitive surfing is looking brighter all the time!

Results from the weekend of April 20:

?Oceanside Harbor, State championships “” 1st place, Leah Pakpour;

?Huntington Beach, NSSA regional Championships “” 1st Place, Sean Kimball;

?Santa Cruz, CSF Fish Division “” 1st Place, Zach Williams;

?Santa Cruz, CSF Boys Division “” 1st Place, Adam Mejia.

CHRIS WILLIAMS is a surfing coach and Laguna Beach resident, and father of four surf-crazy sons. He can be reached at [email protected] or (949) 497-5918.