By: SID Chase Dodge
Saturday and Sunday was an eventful day in Westcliff Athletics. Westcliff Surf took to the waves for the first time as a program. Westcliff prides itself on promoting athletics of any kind including surfing not as a club sport but as a collegiate sport on the West Coast. Westcliff entered the NSSA College Division Event #1 at Ventura Harbor. Surfers that participated in this landmark event for the program were Robbie Crist, Jacob May, Blaze Roche, Cole Futak, Bryce Mattox, Ian Livesay, Ninon Mattei, Chelsea Ehlen, and Jack Hopkins. Ninon Mattei was the top finisher on the team making the final round and finishing 6th out of 48 surfers. Robbie Crist, Chelsea Ehlen and Jacob May lost in the 1st round, Bryce Mattox lost in round 2, Jack Hopkins made the 3rd round, and Jacob May lost in round 1. Blaze Roche, Cole Futak and Ian Livesay made the quarterfinals of the event.
Coach Kyle Rouse had this to say of the team's mindset coming into the event, "The coaches and the surfers were very excited coming into this event, as this is our first-ever event for Westcliff, but also, most of these surfers haven't competed since before the covid "break" and were anxious to get out there to compete. We wanted to really make a statement with this first event and I think we did that.
Surfers that stood out at the event were Ninon Mattei who made a huge standout and definitely earned respect from her other competitors. Cole Futak surfed very well but just got unlucky with wave quality in his heat. Blaze Roche is going to be a force in the upcoming events, specifically the one at his home break in Huntington Beach coming up in January.
Coach Rouse How did the team meet your expectations at this event? "We thought we were talented, just didn't know what to expect as we haven't participated in an event yet. However, we know what we are capable of now at this point moving forward. We definitely learned a lot, and we really created a respect level for our program after this first event." The event was exciting to witness Westcliff saw "multiple surfers surfing on finals day and multiple make a long run through the rounds was awesome!" said Coach Rouse. "In some challenging surf this weekend, our team showed patience and creativity to pull through some heats which shows a lot of promise for the next contests. We're stoked on the outcome today and can't wait to get back out in the water to prepare for the next event!"
Our next event is event #2 which will be on January 22nd and 23rd, held at Huntington Beach Tower 3.
to contact me email me at chasedodge@westcliff.edu
