From waking up at five a.m. to chase the perfect sunrise wave, to constantly traveling to Santa Cruz to compete in scholastic surf competitions, dedication is key in the journey of developing surfing skills. Rex Hill, a Tam senior who is now partnered with companies such as Rip Curl and Proof Lab, has been surfing since the age of four.

“There’s a lot of family aspects to it. When you’re having a bad day, the second you’re in the water you’re not thinking about something from before; you have to focus on the wave that may be breaking on you or the next ride you’re going to get,” Hill said.

After winning a men’s scholastic surf competition on Saturday Oct. 20 in Santa Cruz, Hill hopes to continue this success in the coming months, and is planning to enter a number of professional contests through World Surf League (WSL) this summer.

Contrarily, Redwood junior Corbin Mason has recently gotten into surfing in the last few years after conquering his fear of the ocean.

“Until I was about thirteen I was scared of the ocean … But last year I really started getting comfortable in the ocean, going out in bigger waves and that’s really when I fell in love with surfing,” Mason said.

Since going to the beach nearly every day, Mason has seen significant improvement and has began to enter a number of surf competitions with the Half Moon Bay Surf Team.