California’s top young surfers met at Huntington Beach for the National Scholastic Surfing Association West Coast Championships, a weeklong marathon of heats with each individual fighting for a spot in the highly contested finals. The performance of these athletes determined their qualification for Nationals, where the top surfers in the country will compete head to head for the top spot in their division.
The week displayed some amazing surfing from all over the state, but true to the normalcy of these events, the Orange and San Diego counties seemed to dominate most of the finals’ spots. This year, Santa Barbara County raised some eyebrows, taking home some conference titles, as well as a few first-place victories.
Local standout Conner Coffin, Santa Barbara Seals and Gold Coast Groms team rider, took home some impressive achievements for this event.
“Throughout the week, 14-year-old Coffin’s performance level was going through the roof, surfing years ahead of himself,” J. Aragon said. “Coffin’s powerful game earned him victories in the Explorer Juniors and Boys finals, held just hours before.”
Other standouts were Kokoro Tomatsuri, who took home the Explorer Men’s division and won both the Explorer Men’s and Juniors Conference titles. Parker Coffin, Conner’s younger brother, took home the Southwest Open Boys Conference title as well as both the Explorer Menehuene and Boys Conference titles. Samson Magazino placed third in the Open Longboard division and North West Conference title — the only longboard finalist from our area. And the Explorer Masters Gold Coast Conference title was won by no other than Chris Keet, from Surf Happens.
For the women, Lakey Peterson won the Gold Coast Explorer Girls title, while older, seasoned veteran, Demi Bolsterli, won the Explorer and Open Women’s conference titles.
From here we move onto to NSSA Nationals, which will feature all the top young groms from around the nation, June 18-28. In the meantime, I want to wish Conner Coffin, Demi Bolsterli and the USA team best of luck as they compete in the 2008 International Surfing Association World Junior Championships in Hossegor, France.
2008 NSSA West Coast Championship Local Results
Conner Coffin
1st Place Explorer Boys
1st Place Explorer Juniors
2nd Place Open Juniors
3rd Place Open Men’s
Parker Coffin
3rd Place Explorer Menehuene
6th Place Explorer Boys
2nd Place Open Boys
Kokoro Tomatsuri
1st Place Explorer Men’s
Adam Lambert
4th Place Explorer Men’s
Demi Boelsterli
2nd Place Explorer Women’s
3d Place Open Women’s
Lakey Peterson
1st Place Explorer Girls
6th Place Explorer Women’s
Samson Anderson Magazino
3rd Place Open Longboard
Robert Curtis
2nd Place Air show
NSSA 2008 Conference Champions Local Results
Parker Coffin
Gold Coast Conference — Explorer Menehuene and Boys
Southwest Open Conference — Open Boys
Conner Coffin
Southwest Open Conference — Open Juniors
Kokoro Tomatsuri
Gold Coast Conference — Explorer Juniors and Men’s
Chris Keet
Gold Coast Conference — Explorer Masters
Demi Boelsterli
Gold Coast Conference — Explorer Women’s
Northwest Open Conference — Open Women’s
Lakey Peterson
Gold Coast Explorer Conference — Explorer Girls
J.P. Garcia is director of the Santa Barbara Seals.
