Malibu surfer Frankie Seely is riding high on a wave of success.
The 17-year-old Malibu High School student has claimed victory at two consecutive surfing competitions, and now she’s gearing up for a national surfing event later this month.
Seely, a specialist on the 8-foot longboard and 5-to-7-foot shortboard, won the Girls Longboard U18 division of the Western Surfing Association on May 11 at Church Beach in San Onofre, Calif. Next, she won the Explorer Women’s Division title at the Nationals Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) State Championship on May 18 in Huntington Beach. Seely also participated in Surfing America’s USA Championships at Church Beach June 13-18, finishing fourth in the womens under-18 division.
During the three-day NSSA event at the Huntington Beach Pier, Seely finished with a score of 11.10 on 4-to- 6-feet waves. That was good enough to best second-place finisher Steffi Kerson of Thousand Oak’s 10.40 at the amateur surfing competition.
In a recent phone interview, Seely said her last two wins were unlike any others.
“All that hard work paid off,” she said. “I had a great coach backing me up [Mike Lamm], and I just tried to do my best. There are a lot of great competitors that I have been going against throughout the season, and they are very seasoned; it was pretty great to be able to win over those girls because they are tough competition.”
Her NSSA win, which came at an event that featured around 400 surfers from across California, washed in a year after Malibu surfer Frankie Harrer won the same event.
Seely said she did not perform well at the event last year and was unprepared.
“This year I was relaxed, had a healthy diet and a really great coach,” she said.
Frankie said before any surfing tournament she always thinks positively.
“Be calm, be collected and just enjoy surfing,” she said. “The times I would get nervous my legs would get heavy because of all the tension, but lately I have been getting over it.”
The release of tension and the help of her coach, Mike Lamm, a champion surfer and coach, has allowed her to have successful outings on her board.
She credited Lamm with providing great guidance.
“He has won these championships before,” she said. “His coaching has helped tremendously.”
Frankie’s success on the water comes at a good time. The 2014 NSSA National Championships are June 26 to July 3 in Huntington Beach. The championship event will feature some of the top amateur surfers from across the United States.
Frankie said she is looking forward to the national championships because the waters off the coast of the Huntington Beach feature one of her favorite waves in California.
Frankie, who describes surfing as her “life” and “love,” has dreams of catching waves beyond the California coastlines and even America’s beaches.
“I hope to one day travel the world, surfing my favorite waves,” she said. “I really want to go to Fiji or Tahiti and surf.”