49er surf team hits the water

By Lyndsey Shinoda
Daily Forty-Niner

After a 10-year hiatus, the Long Beach State surf team is back with a vengeance.

In its first event of the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSAA) season on Sunday, the surfers ripped up the competition, capturing the team title as well as individual titles at Black's Beach in San Diego.

Two teams, A and B, which were determined by tryouts, consist of six surfers each, who compete in the NSAA competitions. The A team won first place overall by eight points, followed by UC Santa Barbara's A team in second place and Mira Costa's A team in third.

LBSU's Ben Will, the president of the team, captured first place in the men's competition, and Justin Harcharic placed third.

"There's a lot of good teams out there, but we have a solid team ourselves," said Gabe Lefrancois, of LBSU's B team. "It's our first year back and it should be exciting. We're no joke, we're going to bring home a title for Long Beach."

For the women, Jodie Nelson of the A team placed third individually, while Jon Husak of the B team placed third in the longboard competition.

49er Joey Montes of the A team, who made it to the semi-finals of the competition, scored a perfect 10 on a wave in the quarterfinals.

"I was stoked," Montes said." "I couldn't have done anything better. A perfect 10 is extremely rare. That's my contribution to the team."

Montes said he is excited about the season.

"The team's insane, you couldn't ask for a better team," he said. "The amount of talent that's there is just ridiculous."

The LBSU surf team has 65 members and is open to all students. The team practices at Huntington Beach three times a month and its next competition is in Ventura in January.

Gabe Lefrancois

LBSU surf team captain Ben Will, who captured first place at Black's Beach, carves hard.