by Ed Solt
All photos by Saul Zaragoza
Torrance Beach is a nook that doesn’t greet a healthy swell straight on like the more exposed breaks elsewhere in the South Bay. In the past, Manhattan Beach’s 26th Street and El Porto have been the go-to breaks when any trickle of swell shows up. Torrance is usually flat.
But this year, Torrance Beach has been the saving grace for the South Bay Scholastic Surfing Association.
The northern breaks in the South Bay have been too enormous and walled up to hold a surf contest for the many surf divisions and abilities of the high school league. The swell creeps in less directly in the bay’s southern pocket, Torrance Beach, ultimately creating smaller surf with better shape.
More contests have been held this season at “Gotham Point” (a 1966 episode of “Batman” was filmed at Torrance Beach) than ever before in SBSSA league history
“It’s been a great El Nino season with all our swell at Torrance Beach,” said league director Dickie O’Reilly. “Once again this morning, there are some great waves to be had.”
Only two weeks remained in the high school surf season as Palos Verdes and Peninsula battled at their home breaks last Friday. Both schools hold surf practice side by side. Surf was in the shoulder to head high range with the occasional clean up set.
“There were definitely some sneaker sets,” said Mike Siordia, surf judge. “The high extreme tide shaped up and groomed the swell allowing a few corners and open faces.”
The high tide peaked in the first heat of the contest, the boy’s shortboard division. The sets broke from the outside and snowballed all the way to the inside. no images were found
“The peelers allowed a canvas for a lot of radical surfing,” said Siordia.
PV took full advantage taking the top three spots. Sean St. Pierre placed third with a set right and a few turns. Second went to Trevor Kahn with a backside cutback. Jack Rowan won the heat after milking all his waves to the shore reform and ending with a radical rollercoaster.
“Peter Healey, Jack Rowan, and Rodney Buck have clearly put their time in out here and the nuances of the way this wave breaks,” said O’Reilly.
It was another sweep by PV in the second heat of the boy’s shortboard division. Briggs Peus started the heat with a roundhouse cutback, landing him in second. Third place finish Sean Ely was spot on all the connecting rights. Healey won the heat with a frontside snap.
In the girl’s shortboard division, surfers were consistently scratching for the horizon.
“Equally impressive is how fearless the girls are,” said O’Reilly. “There were some punishing sets and the girls were charging.”
PV’s Alicia Stephans loves to drop into the bombs. She placed second with a drop that fell into a layback, recovered, and rode out. Peninsula’s Rebecca Mu connected a few insiders for third. PV’s Paula Knickrehm won the heat with a solid right.
The boy’s longboard heat included a “surf sacrifice” as one of the contestants snapped his stick on an outside set. Peninsula’s Adam Lazarus of Penn owned the lefts sliding an off the tracks rollercoaster for third. The young goofy happens to also be a talented artist as well as an up and coming shaper. He rides his own boards. Healey and Rowan battled for the win as they have for the entire season .Rowan took to the nose for the best tip rides of the heat. He came up short. Healey won after pulling into a tube, getting completely covered up, and coming out.
The softness of the sets led the bodyboarders of the bodyboard division to stick to the inside for launch ramps or critical tubes. Rowan came back with an el rollo to win the division. Healey placed second with a lip bounce. Penn’s Chad Brown pulled into a couple of pits for third.
In the girl’s longboard division, Mu placed third with a good right. Knickrehm dropped into a set outside closeout grasping hard to her rail. She placed second. Stephans kept to her “go for broke” style and won the heat with an over head right all the way to the beach
With no chance of Penn overtaking PV, Lazarus was the shining star for his team as he was Penn’s only first place finisher. Riding his own self shaped quad snubnose, he bashed the lip on a set left. Brown sliced a tight circumference cutback to earn second. Penn’s Casey Escobar placed third with a floater
In the last heat of the contest, the fourth heat of the boy’s shortboard division, it was a victory lap for PV. Riding a Pat Ryan shaped ET Surfboard, Rodney Buck pulled a few gnarly drops and milked a gnarly nug to win the heat.
final score: PV 108, Penn 44.
