Scholastic Surf Series

The Scholastic Surf Series is coming to Avalanche, Ocean Beach on Sunday, October 18, for a full day of surfing on the beach. It's a surf league competition run for high school and middle school surf teams, so it's as much about the teams as it is about the individual heats. The day runs from 7 AM to 4 PM, which is a long stretch of surfing from early morning through the afternoon.

One of the things that sets this apart from a typical open contest is how it's structured. The series is built around school teams rather than just individual entries, and it keeps the age groups separate. There are distinct divisions and separate contests for middle school and high school surfers, so the younger kids aren't competing against the older ones. That means you'll see a wide range of ages out there throughout the day, with the middle school heats and the high school heats running as their own events.

Because it's a league competition, it's more than just a one-off contest. The teams are competing for points as part of a larger series, so there's a season-long context behind every heat. If you've got a kid on one of the local teams, this is one of those days where the whole school community tends to show up and cheer from the sand.

It all happens right on the beach at Avalanche, Ocean Beach in San Diego. The contest runs from 7 AM to 4 PM on Sunday, October 18, so it's a full day of surfing from the first heat of the morning through the afternoon.