Surf
16-year-old Emma Stone, a San Francisco surfer representing Half Moon Bay High, just won the Scholastic Surf Series state championship at Oceanside Harbor in San Diego, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Surfing against a field of Southern California girls, representing San Clemente, La Jolla, Carlsbad, Laguna Beach and other surf havens, Stone won the shortboard division to continue an impressive run. The weekend before, she won the shortboard 18-and-under division of a Western Surfing Association contest at Dana Point.
Stone is a sophomore at Summit Shasta, a charter school in Daly City that does not have a surf team. Rules allow her to surf for the nearest member of the Santa Cruz Scholastic Surf League, thus her affiliation with Half Moon Bay. “She’s been the anchor of our team and a consistent finalist in contests throughout the state since her freshman year,” said Mike Wallace, a longtime surfer and board shaper who coaches the Cougars.
This is quite an accomplishment for a kid from the Sunset district. Stone’s home break is the treacherous Ocean Beach, and “that’s a pretty tough place to learn,” said her father, Adam, a well-traveled surfer.
“She started surfing when she was about eight years old, and we had to drive down the coast to find something a little easier to handle. She always loved Half Moon Bay, and we jumped in full blast. She joined the middle-school team down there, and everything just took off.”
Stone recently had her first experience at the mecca of surfing, Oahu’s North Shore, spending an enjoyable two weeks there. And she no longer finds Ocean Beach a daunting task. “She’s at her best when the waves get big and powerful,” Adam said. “Any time there’s a lot of energy in the water, that’s when she really elevates.”
