The California State University, Long Beach surf team is hitting a new season with a surge of new club members and a shared goal: building a vibrant community within their organization.
Following an intense recruiting process by which the surf team was able to add around 30-40 new members, the CSULB surf team is ready to dominate the National Scholastic Surfing Association Division with a little bit of levity.
“We’re going to run this club like a business,” coach Joel Kirouac said. “And we’re in the business of having a good time.”
The club is working with Beach City Sports, an organization with over 5000 members. With the help of Beach City Sports, Kirouac hopes to fundraise for the club team heavily as well as provide numerous socials for the club team to enjoy.
Kirouac believes that with enough effort and support, his team has the potential to be a top contender in the country.
“I think we could even be number one in America,” Kirouac said. “We’re by Huntington Beach—that’s the Mecca of surfing.”
CSULB’s surf club team ranked No. 10 out of 27 California teams last year. This year, all members have high hopes for breaking into the top five.
Despite competition being high, club vice president Ian Tachell believes that the community will be a driving force in the team’s success this year. But Tachell, like Kirouac, believes that having a good time is an equal priority for the club.
“It’s like a beach club, it’s not even really like a surfing club. We just want to have fun and get as many people out there as we can.” Tachell said.
Kirouac and Tachell not only want to promote community building. They hope to prepare the members for life after college, encouraging them to build connections through networking as well as diligently working to achieve their goals.
Tachell also said he wants to have the 20 returning members of the surf team mentor the group of new recruits.
“We’re going to have beach days where everyone from the club and team go to hang out and surf and people on the team will be teaching people on the club who don’t know how to surf, how to surf.” Tachell said.
For the CSULB surf club team, leading a club team is more than simply pursuing competitions—it’s about learning, teamwork and leadership. The club team draws new recruits in simply by showing the genuine fun that they partake in, said club president Randy Harp.
“There’s a lot of surfers in this location, and it’s really important to try to bring that surf community together at CSULB.” Harp said.
The club team’s first competition will be held Oct. 24 in San Diego at Blacks Beach. There, the club team hopes to bring their club members to the competition in busses to show support for the team and enjoy some downtime in San Diego.