By LBHS Surf Coaches Scott Finn and Alisa Cairns
The Laguna Beach High School surf team had a very successful weekend surfing in the NSSA National Championships for the third year in a row. Laguna’s tremendous showing took them all the way to third overall out of 17 teams competing—only San Clemente and Huntington Beach finished ahead. The result was definitely a whole team effort.
Kayla Coscino, with a fourth place finish, and Kiko Nelsen, with a fifth place finish, led the pack in each of their shortboard divisions. They both had some outstanding performances along the way to finals, but got a bit skunked early in their finals. They had to dig really deep in the last several minutes to secure their results. It was just enough to edge out Dana Hills. Kiko also did double duty helping out in the longboard division.
Tess Booth had an outstanding first round heat in the women’s and the rest of our men shortboarders did well making several rounds and helped Laguna Beach High School to their impressive finish. Sam Nelsen made it all the way to the semi-finals, while Travis Booth and Liam McCue had some outstanding performances, but were unlucky getting interference calls against them in the quarter finals. There was great surfing and effort also put in by Kyle Shaw and Jett North.
The event was held at Salt Creek, and the surf and weather were a mixed bag. The surf was difficult and bumpy at times, but our kids surfed really well, scoring several excellent rides along the way.
