Kelsey Hammell, 17
In surfing, you’re either a right foot or a left foot—meaning the foot you lead with and the one you attach the leash to. The rear foot you use for balance. If you lead with your left foot, you’re a goofy foot. I used to be a right foot, but then I hurt that foot, so now I’m a goofy foot.
As a girl surfer, you have to be as good as the boys or better, to prove you can do it. There are about fifteen people on the Middle Township High School surf team, and two other girls besides me. You have to try to be like one of the guys instead of performing at the lower level they expect you to be at.
Guys are more competitive, but girls just go with it and let the waves take them. They’re more natural surfers.
Knowing whether the wave is going to break right or left is important. If you get it wrong, you go under. Another tough thing is when you’re paddling out to where the waves are breaking, you need to be able to duck under the waves you’re not going to ride. That was the thing I struggled with most. I was scared going under the wave that I wouldn’t come out on the other side, or that I’d come out into another breaking wave.
Once you’re out there, you kind of don’t think about things. You feel happy and at peace, kind of like you’re getting high off the water. After I leave the beach I’m always in a good mood, no matter what—unless there were no waves to ride that day.
I injured my foot surfing last Memorial Day. I started to go into a nosedive, so I tried to right myself by putting all my weight on the back of the board. My foot slipped (because I forgot to wax the board) and I ended up crunching all my weight on the outside of my foot. I wrapped it with tape and kept surfing all summer. I didn’t tell anyone. When my parents were around, I’d walk normally; when they weren’t, I’d limp. By August it was really messed up, and I was having trouble walking. I went to the doctor, and he said I had a stress fracture. He sent me for therapy and told me I needed to rest it. This winter I went skiing and it flared up again really bad, and I couldn’t walk, and he put me on crutches. Now I have a brace, and that helps support it. I’m hoping it won’t mess up my surfing this year.
I first got into surfing with my church, because every Sunday after church we’d all go down to the beach. One day when I was in fifth grade my friend Eric offered to take me out surfing. At first the waves were kind of big and I was kind of scared, but I got over that by not looking back.
By the end of that summer I had kind of gotten the hang of it, but I didn’t really know how to do it completely. Then my church went down to Cape Hatteras. It was hurricane season then. That’s when I switched from a light, flexible board to a hard, fiberglass board and finally built up the courage to try the bigger waves. My favorite part is dropping in on the waves. That’s when you’re on the top and you dive down to the bottom. That’s heart pounding.
At my old school, we’d always go surfing after school. I’d bring my surfboard with me in the morning and put it in the classroom with one of my teachers. This year I transferred to Middle Township High School, and they have a surf club there. We surf in competitions. I just started getting involved.
I couldn’t compete in the Nun’s Beach Surf Invitational last September because of my injury, but I was there to cheer on my friends. In October I competed for the first time. Since our team placed third, we get to go to Laguna Beach, California, in June. I’ll be surfing there, but I won’t be competing since I’m new to the club. We leave the day after school gets out.