By Elizabeth Newman
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]
The UCLA surf team’s position as a “club” team
means that the average UCLA student will remain clueless of its
activities until they send members to national competition.
Well, actually they did. Or they were going to. The team had the
opportunity to catapult past its position as a campus unknown in
mid-June, when the eight-member squad qualified for the National
Scholastic Surfing Association National Championships held in Dana
Point.
“It’s nice to know we can surf against the best
schools in California and … hold our own.”
Kelsey Folgner UCLA surf team member
Only 18 out of 32 California collegiate teams qualified and UCLA
barely squeaked by with a 16th place ranking, determined by four
regular season competitions and the invitation-only state
competition. The competition at Nationals is fierce, and taking
home the title is something UCLA’s surf team has never
accomplished.
“I don’t remember the last time UCLA went to
Nationals,” says team captain Brian Williams. “We were
pretty stoked.”
“It’s nice to know we can surf against the best
schools in California and that we can hold our own,” added
first-year squad member Kelsey Folgner.
The team is comprised of shortboarders Williams, Chris Cuseo,
Clayton Snyder, Ian MacPherson, Jason Sikola, and Mike Anderson;
Folgner represents UCLA in the women’s division, and
body-boarder Brent Koops rounds out the roster.
However, the waves of Nationals were not meant to be surfed by
UCLA this year. One member of the squad, whose identity the
team would not disclose, was deemed unable to compete due to low
grades.
“Nationals requires you to have a 2.0. … and he
didn’t,” said Williams. “He was going to surf in
more than one contest. … There were multiple problems and we just
couldn’t replace him.”
Sikola is the only team member who competes in both the
shortboard and the longboard contests. When asked to comment on his
academic standing, Sikola said,”I wasn’t eligible
because I had already graduated, and you need to be a full time
student.”
The team does have two alternates, Brent Taylor and Lucian
Connor, but they were not able to compete as neither was going to
be in Los Angeles that weekend.
The team, however, has taken the loss in stride.
“Hey, we qualified, that’s all that matters,”
says Williams optimistically.
Granted, qualifying is qualifying, and 16th place in California
is hardly a bad showing considering the intense competition that
stems from community college teams made of very dedicated surfers
who usually dominate the competitive scene. In the past few years,
UCLA’s team hasn’t had much to write home about, save
for graduated Bruin Amber Puha, who was the Women’s National
Collegiate Champion from 1996-1998.
“(When we found out we made Nationals) we were actually a
little surprised, we didn’t think we had done so well in the
regular season,” Folgner says.
“We could have done a lot better this year,”
confirms Williams. “One contest was three days before
Christmas, and so many people went home to their families that we
had a poor turnout. The last contest was the weekend before finals
““ which was also a major bummer. It screws the university
teams because we’re still in school, but the state schools
and community colleges aren’t.”
Despite the bad timing Williams cited, the team is preparing for
next year with incoming team captain Anderson at the helm.
Says Folgner, “Sure, I was kind of bummed we
couldn’t go (to Nationals), but if we made it once, we can
definitely make it again.”