Pali’s surf team competed in the Zuma Surf Competition at Zuma Beach in Malibu on Oct. 13.
The competition was hosted by the Scholastic Surf Series, a division of the Western Surfing Association. Eight high schools from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara competed in five categories: men’s shortboard, women’s shortboard, men’s longboard, women’s longboard and co-ed bodyboard.
Two members of the Pali surf team placed in the tournament. Sophomore Aidan Stuempfig was awarded first place in men’s longboard, and co-captain and senior Kaiulani Viles placed fifth in women’s longboard for the second consecutive year.
Viles said she was inspired to surf after watching the film Soul Surfer, which follows Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who survived a shark attack.
“The fact that she’s a woman in a very male-dominated sport is so iconic,” Viles said.
Despite her love for the sport, Viles described the challenges she has experienced as a female surfer.
“There’s not a big girl surfing community at Pali,” she explained. “Even when I go out [to competitions], the other girls from different schools don’t talk to each other. As a girl, it’s a little bit scary and lonely.”
Meeting other female surfers has been her primary motivation for competing.
“The best part [of competing] is seeing a female surf community beyond this school,” she said. “Doing these competitions is a way to recognize that I’m not the only one and there’s a big community out there.”
Fellow co-captain and senior Zane Harwin also noted challenges that Pali’s surf team faced at the competition.
“When we got to the competition the waves were about six or seven feet above head high, and it was a big swell coming from the south, so it did put many of the surfers or competitors in a position of whether or not they wanted to paddle out at their own risk,” Harwin said.
He shared that members of Pali’s surf team practice in the Palisades, which has smaller waves, placing them at a disadvantage compared to competitors from Malibu and Santa Barbara, where surf conditions are better for training.
“When Pali competitors go down to the competitions with this kind of swell, they’re not ready to be put into a situation like that and to handle these types of waves,” Harwin said.
Nonetheless, Harwin is proud of how Pali’s surf team performed at the Zuma Surf Competition.
“It is a cool thing to inspire all the new surfers and the young freshmen and be a leader for them,” he said. “When I was a freshman, I looked up to those kids, and I kind of wished we had a better leader. This is my chance to become that guy and set off the right path for the next generations to come.”
