can beat him at movie trivia. Other than that, I stand by my earlier statements: His name might as well be Sawyer Jerkface Hensley.
Eight
The first thing that hits my ears the next morning is the opening notes of “Madhouse” by Little Mix. As I’m about to hit snooze, a thought pops into my head: Today is Junior Champs. Suddenly, my feet hit the floor and I’m blasting my “Pre-Competition” playlist, beginning with same song I chose for my alarm. The beat floods in through my ears and seeps into my veins, pumping my heart with excitement. I jump around a bit to loosen up, then change out of my pajamas and into my black bikini. Instead of a rash guard, I throw on a t-shirt and a pair of comfy cotton shorts. I’ll get a competition rash guard at the beach today that’s a certain color and has my number on it, so the judges can identify me out in the lineup.
The way the competition works is extremely similar to a swim meet, if you know what that is. Each surfer is put in one or two categories, called divisions, usually by age and gender. Each event has several rounds. The Junior Champs events have four rounds: Qualifying, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals. Each round is a series of heats, where a certain amount of competitors make it through to the next round. During qualifiers, the top thirty surfers make it through. In quarter finals, the top fifteen make it, and five of those fifteen make it through the semi finals to the finals. Those five battle it out for the top three spots to place.
Typically, there’s about four or five surfers per heat, so naturally, elimination is the longest round due to how many heats are scheduled and competitors signed up.
Bigger competitions take place over five or six days, because each heat takes about twenty to thirty minutes. Junior Champs is today and tomorrow, with qualifiers this morning and the rest of the rounds tomorrow most likely. I’m in the girls 15-18 event and the girls 17-18 event. They only do the large-spectrum event for the 15-18 girls and 15-18 boys, because most of us are on the same skill level thanks to the fact that we’ve all been surfing since we could stand up. Some work at it more than others. To some, it’s a recreational sport and a chance to hang out with friends. For others, it’s a career path. Me? I take it pretty darn seriously. Anyway, each surfer is allowed ten waves per heat and only the top three waves count towards that surfer’s final score for the heat. Each wave is scored from 0.5 to 10, 0.5 being you managed to get your feet on the board and straighten up, 10 being a perfectly executed ride.
Like how some mainland cities revolve around baseball or basketball, Oahu revolves around surfing. It’s the most common sport kids participate in, but unlike most kids’ sports, all the local new channels around here cover the bigger events. The last time I competed, I was fifteen and on a two-week winter break from school in New York and won both big competitions I was in. I compete a bunch in the winter in New York with snowboarding, too, but this is different. A few local news stations already caught wind of me being back and have been guessing about what competitions I’ll be in, if any. This is in front of basically the whole island I grew up on.
With my fluorescent green surfboard and canvas hobo bag in tow, I slide on my rubber slippers and head out to the kitchen. I grab a dragon fruit-flavored Vitamin Water and a few protein bars for my bag to bring along, then sit down to drink the smoothie Grammy has ready for me. “Ready?” Papaw asks. I run through a quick checklist in my head before I respond: We looked at the forecast last night and the conditions look prime; My bag is packed up with my phone, headphones, surf wax and anything else I could possibly need; Grammy’s well-trained fingers start in on french braiding my hair, so all I’ve got to do is check in
Eight
The first thing that hits my ears the next morning is the opening notes of “Madhouse” by Little Mix. As I’m about to hit snooze, a thought pops into my head: Today is Junior Champs. Suddenly, my feet hit the floor and I’m blasting my “Pre-Competition” playlist, beginning with same song I chose for my alarm. The beat floods in through my ears and seeps into my veins, pumping my heart with excitement. I jump around a bit to loosen up, then change out of my pajamas and into my black bikini. Instead of a rash guard, I throw on a t-shirt and a pair of comfy cotton shorts. I’ll get a competition rash guard at the beach today that’s a certain color and has my number on it, so the judges can identify me out in the lineup.
The way the competition works is extremely similar to a swim meet, if you know what that is. Each surfer is put in one or two categories, called divisions, usually by age and gender. Each event has several rounds. The Junior Champs events have four rounds: Qualifying, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals. Each round is a series of heats, where a certain amount of competitors make it through to the next round. During qualifiers, the top thirty surfers make it through. In quarter finals, the top fifteen make it, and five of those fifteen make it through the semi finals to the finals. Those five battle it out for the top three spots to place.
Typically, there’s about four or five surfers per heat, so naturally, elimination is the longest round due to how many heats are scheduled and competitors signed up.
Bigger competitions take place over five or six days, because each heat takes about twenty to thirty minutes. Junior Champs is today and tomorrow, with qualifiers this morning and the rest of the rounds tomorrow most likely. I’m in the girls 15-18 event and the girls 17-18 event. They only do the large-spectrum event for the 15-18 girls and 15-18 boys, because most of us are on the same skill level thanks to the fact that we’ve all been surfing since we could stand up. Some work at it more than others. To some, it’s a recreational sport and a chance to hang out with friends. For others, it’s a career path. Me? I take it pretty darn seriously. Anyway, each surfer is allowed ten waves per heat and only the top three waves count towards that surfer’s final score for the heat. Each wave is scored from 0.5 to 10, 0.5 being you managed to get your feet on the board and straighten up, 10 being a perfectly executed ride.
Like how some mainland cities revolve around baseball or basketball, Oahu revolves around surfing. It’s the most common sport kids participate in, but unlike most kids’ sports, all the local new channels around here cover the bigger events. The last time I competed, I was fifteen and on a two-week winter break from school in New York and won both big competitions I was in. I compete a bunch in the winter in New York with snowboarding, too, but this is different. A few local news stations already caught wind of me being back and have been guessing about what competitions I’ll be in, if any. This is in front of basically the whole island I grew up on.
With my fluorescent green surfboard and canvas hobo bag in tow, I slide on my rubber slippers and head out to the kitchen. I grab a dragon fruit-flavored Vitamin Water and a few protein bars for my bag to bring along, then sit down to drink the smoothie Grammy has ready for me. “Ready?” Papaw asks. I run through a quick checklist in my head before I respond: We looked at the forecast last night and the conditions look prime; My bag is packed up with my phone, headphones, surf wax and anything else I could possibly need; Grammy’s well-trained fingers start in on french braiding my hair, so all I’ve got to do is check in
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