On a glorious morning at the Santa Monica Tower in Santa Monica, the Malibu High surf team completed its year with a rousing 72-40 victory against Ventura last Sunday. Freshman Frankie Seely won the overall women’s longboard and shortboard events as the Sharks finished the season with a record of 3-1-1.
The Sharks have competed this season against Dos Pueblos at the Ventura Fairgrounds (61-49 loss), Palisades at the Heavens of Leo Carillo (70-33 win), Santa Barbara at Mandalay Beach in Oxnard (56-56 tie) and Oak Park at Campus Pointe at UC Santa Barbara (74-28 win).
“It’s been a great year for our team,” senior Trevor Robbins said. “Every contest and practice had fun waves. Today the conditions were perfect and we did really well.”
With high tide rolling in during the morning with waves coming in between two and three feet high, conditions were ideal for a good day of surfing for eight schools as part of the Scholastic Surf Series (SSS).
Seely, 14, led the way as the only double finalist for Malibu. Her efforts at Santa Monica clinched first place overall for her in the women’s “Los Angeles to Santa Barbara High School” longboard division.
“I was just super happy,” Seely said. “I had a pretty good day. It came against a lot of great competitors. I can’t believe I did this well in my first year against girls with more experience.”
Surfing since the age of five, Seely has been a consistent surfer for MHS, which boasts 32 members on its team.
“Frankie has brought a lot of talent into our girls’ team this year,” Malibu coach Elaine Robbins said. “She is our biggest asset to the team since she is always a double finalist and places in the top three of all the school portions to move on to the individuals. We have been watching her surfing emerge since she has been on our middle school team.”
Robbins finished third overall in the men’s longboarding division while teammate Jackson O’Connor took fifth. Tom Caen won the bodyboarder event and finished the regular season first overall as he claimed four first places and a second.
Danica Downing, who also plays for MHS girls soccer team, took second place in the women’s shortboard while Moorea Maguire finished third for women’s longboard. Sara Toussieng, Chris Finck and Dimitri Papavassiliou have also had a strong season for the team.
Malibu is currently tied for third overall with Santa Barbara in the team competition behind Thousand Oaks and front-running Dos Pueblos High School. Final results will be announced in the coming week.
MHS will find out early next month which of its surfers will advance to the SSS State Championships to be held April 21-23 at Oceanside.