The NSSA Nationals ended on Sat. with some good surf and the beginning of a south swell. The semi finals and finals were held in solid four to five foot, clean blue walls. The Open Women heats gave the east coast girls another chance. The heats were fun to watch and east coast girls Ashley Francis, Connie Arias, Leah Dawson, Kirra Sheppard, Heidi Drazich, Moriah Dougherty, and Courtney Andren gave it their all. Florida's Kirra Sheppard was surfing sharp! She advanced into the Repercharge, the only east coast girl to make the cut. Unfortunately the Hawaiians got the best of her and Kirra didn't make the final. But watch out, because the east coast girls are a young talent that is liable to give Nationals a good taste of competition next year!

The Open Women final was a battle between Hawaiian's Sena Seramur, Tiara Barron, Lelani Gryde and Californian's Holly Beck, Anastasia Ashley, and Anna Garaway. Holly proved she is a force to reckon with, scoring a 9.5 on one wave and taking home the title as well as the inaugural Governor's Cup trophy. (It's a big deal that California's governer, Gray Davis, even recognized surfing as a legitmate sport!) Sena placed second with fourteen year old Anastasia taking an impressive third, with Tiara fourth, Lelani fifth, and Anna placing sixth.

There was a buzz in the air at the Sunday night NSSA banquet that Holly Beck would also take the Explorer Women's title, but when they announce the winners, Holly had a suprising third place finish. Thinking back on the heat, which was awesome to watch, because wave after wave came in for the girls, apparently Holly and Nicole Grodesky were given a double interference on their first wave (meaning they both blocked each other and points were deducted from their final score) which dropped Holly down to third and Nicole into sixth place. So Sena Seramur of Hawaii was the lucky wahine who took home the title and the big trophy. She's stoked to win her third Nationals title, especially since she is going pro next year. (Holly is too for that matter.) Runner up was Amber Puha, Holly in third, Anastasia Ashley in fourth, Kim Mayer in fifth, and Nicole sixth.

Image not available in the archive.
Explorer Women Finalists, Holly Beck, Kim Mayer, Amber Puha, Nicole Grodesky, Sena Seramur (not pictured: Anastasia Ashley)

June 29th 2001 (see below for the day before)

The semi finals for Explorer Women were held yesterday in very small knee to maybe waist high surf. The extreme low tide made the surf fairly week and the girls were paddle battling each other for a tense fifteen minutes. One decent sized set came through and Amber Puha of California caught the first wave setting the pace for the heat. Erin Meyers of California caught some good ones as well. Florida's Nicole Grodesky who had a statement to make after the previous day's misjudged heat gave it her all and advanced to the finals. She jokingly wore her Hawaiian baggies, saying, "yeah I thought the judges might think I was Hawaiian and score me higher." Sarcasm aside, Nicole said the best part of the heat was when the clock was winding down and she and Holly Beck were the only ones on the outside, when a decent sized wave came through. " I looked at Holly and said, hey you know I really need this wave to get through, and she smiled and gave me the left. We split the peak and it got me third place and I advanced to the finals. I was stoked, I mean I was really amped!"

The Explorer Women Finals take place Saturday as well as the Open Women heats where some of our east coast girls will get another chance.

Explorer Women Repercharge Results:

1 Holly Beck, CA
2 Amber Puha, CA
3 Nicole Grodesky, FL
4 Erin Meyers, CA
5 Jessica Oswald, CA
6 Anna Garaway, CA

June 27th, 2001

Ten girls traveled from the East Coast to Lower Trestles, California to compete in the Explorer Women's division of the National Scholastic Surfing Championships. Connie Arias, Heidi Drazick, Linda Davoli, Carla Miller, Kelly Hutchison, Ashley Francis, Kirra Sheppard, Ashley Bobb, Moria Dougherty, and Courtney Andren competed in the preliminary rounds on Tuesday in east coast style waist to shoulder high waves. Only Moria Dougherty from the NE district advanced placing third behind Holly Beck and Erin Meyers of California. Moria then went on to the quarters, but unfortunately didn't make the top three.

So what gives? Are the Californians and Hawaiians that much more advanced? Well yes and no. It's interesting to note that the east coast competitors were the youngest of all the competitors, mostly in the 14-16 year old range, except for Linda Davoli of New Jersey who is a long time competitor and may have advanced, yet she was given a penalty for paddling out on the wrong side of the buoy. And with the abscence of Jamie Dewitt, who is too sick to compete, and is sorely missed our only hope is ex east coaster, Nicole Grodesky, who move from Florida to Cali a few years ago to try and go pro. Nicole was dominating her heat yesterday and during her quarter finals it was obvious to every single viewer on the beach that she won the heat, yet the judges scored Hawaii's Sena Seramur into a questionable first place. I heard a few uproars on the beach and Nicole's mom who came to visit from Florida was just as frustrated as her daughter. There are still the Open Women's rounds to go, I'll keep you posted if anyone is interested. Everyone say a prayer for Nicole becasue she got rooked and now has to overcome anger to get out of her next heat to make the final. --Anne Beasley