Avalon Johnson
HWS Note: What do you do when you’re a competitive surfer and your high school doesn’t have a surf team? This was the Avalon Johnson’s dilemma. Avalon did her research, gathered interested students, submitted a proposal to her school and the proposal was accepted. Today, Classical Academy High School Surf Team will be competing in the Scholastic Surf Series for a second year.
This isn’t all that Avalon has accomplished. She was invited to the 2013 Oncofertility Conference at Northwestern University on Sept 9-10 in Chicago to give a presentation on her paper, “The correlation between decreased leptin levels and the onset of menarche”. The conference was a success and she’s excited about the advances science is gaining in the field of cancer research.
Along with her starting the surf team and her academic accomplishments, Avalon competes in the Surfing America Prime and other Junior Pro events. We can’t wait to hear of her next adventures!
by Avalon Johnson
When I was trying to decide which High School I wanted to attend, it came down to extracurricular activities. I live in Carlsbad so my local high school is Carlsbad High School (CHS). However, I went to The Coastal Academy Charter School for elementary and middle school in Oceanside and my school friends were going to our charter high school The Classical Academy High School (CAHS) in Escondido.
I decided that I wanted to go to Classical Academy with my friends and surf for Carlsbad High on their high school surf team. However, Carlsbad High wouldn’t let me surf on their team. Even though the Scholastic Surf Series (SSS) states I can surf for the school where I live, CHS said I had to attend their high school or their home school, Seaside Academy, to surf on their team. And, the Classical Academy didn’t have a surf team.
The solution to my problem seemed obvious: if I could make a surf team at CAHS, I could still go to school with my friends and surf on a high school team. So, I went to the principal, Mr. Moen, at CAHS and asked if I could start a surf team. He said that one attempt in the past had failed but if I wanted to, I could try again. Mr. Moen gave me permission to set-up a surf team sign-up table at the school’s orientation. There ended up being a high amount of interest and skill of students wanting to be on a team. With the help of Carolyn Krammer we were able to solidify ourselves as an official division 4 high school team in the Scholastic Surf Series.
We were very grass roots my Freshman year. Most of the surfers on the team were just excited that their parents would take them to the beach once a week for practice. Most of them lived about 30 minutes away in Escondido. Josh Kammler was our first coach. We held bake sales at school lunches to make enough money to pay back the school the fees for SSS. I asked Sticky Bumps if they would sponsor us with wax and stickers and they did! Throughout the year I had to keep everyone excited for the surf team. I would write out information about our contests in our school news and I would hold surf team meetings during our lunch hour. Our first season, 2011/2012, our team actually tied for 3 place overall!
During my Sophomore year, I was able to convince the same surfers to participate again and we even recruited a couple more surfers. However, our coach from the first year was coaching the basketball team, so we needed a coach to complete our team. Mr. Vansickle stepped up and took over the position, earning the name Coach Vansickle. We had sweatshirts made for our high school team and we even had a banner made to put up at the contests. Sticky Bumps sponsored us again! Our second season, 2012/2013, we placed 5th overall. Other people in the school became interested in the team and classmates even came to watch our contests!
This is our 3rd season, my Junior year, and I’m very excited. We have so many people, including my sister as a freshman this year, wanting to sign up. We have so many members that we made a competitive team and a surf club. The surfers in the competitive team will surf in the contests and the surfers in the club will practice and learn how contests run so next year they can compete. We have Sticky Bumps sponsoring us again, as well as our new sponsors: GromBomb, Garden State Bagels, and Warm Water Surf Shop. We have towels, stickers and hoodies made with our school’s team logo! Anyone who has been a part of the team knows how much fun we have; it’s like having another family at school. I can’t wait to keep adding on to the team and growing together.
I want to thank Mr. Moen for letting me get the team started and for being so supportive of the team by coming to contests and keeping up with the team’s ratings. Also, big thank you to Carolyn Krammer for helping me understand the paperwork need for the team and how the team contests run. Thank you to Coach Vansickle for being our amazing coach. Lastly, I want to thank my parents for raising me to have a go-for-it attitude. I love my school and I love my team, which was the goal I wanted to achieve.
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