October 17-18, 1009

This past weekend, the UCSD Surf Team competed in their season opening competition at UCSD's very own Black's Beach. The team started off with a bang as the B team won the trials which entered them into the main event. Strong performances from the B team came from captain, Oliver Fries, returning surfers, Nick Kunzer, Jeff Cheney, Chris David, Johnny Derick, new surfteam member Matt Quinn, female surfers Marissa Hood and Gretchen Wegrich and longboarder Jeremy Darcey.

Due to the dense fog that stormed through all day Saturday, the competition was put on hold for over 3 hours in the middle of round 1. The competition resumed on Sunday with everyone on the A team placing 1st or 2nd in their first round heats! Max Karnig and Marty Weinstein pushed on through, getting bumped out of the competition in the quarterfinals, where the conditions did not work on their side. With a dropping swell and extremely low tides, the men's surfers on the A team lost out in the quarterfinals. However, A team girl surfers, Chelsea Rauhut and Lexi Wilson along with B team girl surfer, Gretchen Wegrich are moving onto the semifinals which will take place in three weeks. Also, A team longboarder Brian Franz dominated his first round heat placing second, beating several professional longboarders surfing for other schools.

Overall, the surf team looks forward to redemption at the next competition in Huntington Beach. We have identified areas to improve on and will show up to HB trained and ready to compete!