For the second time in as many contests for the 2022-23 NSSA West Coast College season, the Point Loma Nazareth University Surf team came out victorious this weekend at the famous Pier at Huntington Beach.
The Sea Lions tallied 197 points as they placed surfers in the top six in all three divisions. UC Santa Cruz and Saddleback tied for second (131 pts) and Cal Poly SLO and Westcliff University tied for fourth (111).
This was the second of three events on the season. The first came at Blacks Beach in San Diego when PLNU topped Westcliffe. The event scheduled for Santa Cruz was postponed a few weeks ago during the heavy storm season and will be made up in February. The Interscholastic State Championships will be March 3-5 at Huntington Beach and the Nationals will be in June at Dana Point.
The event this past weekend, marked the return to action for a name many observers of youth surfing know very well.
Makana Franzmann, who grew up a ripping surfer and skater in Hawaii, spent the last four months out of the water recovering from shoulder surgery. He was successful in his return as he topped the other 185 entrants in leading a clean sweep of the top three places for PLNU in the Men's division.
" This was my first college contest competing alongside a great team. It felt amazing to take the win competing with my brother (Dylan) and team," Franzmann said " In the morning the conditions were clean, and the waves were breaking on the inside, which made it hard to find waves, but there were some fun short rides with a couple of air sections.
"In the afternoon the wind came up and the waves started breaking on the outside. It was difficult to find a rideable open-faced wave, but luckily for me and my team, we were able to find some scores to take the win. "
You may be wondering what brought the 18-year-old to San Diego from the beautiful Hawiian Islands.
"Growing up in Hawaii, I see many different life paths being taken. The dream was to become the best surfer you can be and hopefully make money. Moving away for college where I can surf and compete made me realize I can still do what I love and find a good life balance between work and surfing. "
While still competing on the World Surf League Hawaii Region tour, Franzmann has a definite plan for his future.
"I am studying business at PLNU because I have always felt business minded and want to learn more about how I can make money and be my own boss, " he said. "For surfing, all I want to do is work harder to be the best possible surfer I can be. I want to be able to surf every day for the rest of my life and that’s the most important thing to me. "
Here is how the College event played out.
(all photos courtesy Don August/EyeOnSurfing)
Men
1st - Makana Franzmann (PLNU)
2nd - Jackson Butler (PLNU)
3rd - Dylan Franzmann (PLNU)
4th - Alex Fry (UCSC)
5th - Tony Nunez (CAL POLY SLO)
6th - Kai McPhillips (Saddleback)
Women
1st -Silke Martinez (Westcliffe)
2nd - Lilie Kulber (UCLA)
3rd - Tiare Thompson (USC)
4th - Zoe Bonik (PLNU)
5th - Taylor Stacy (Saddleback)
6th - Jill Collins (BYU)
Longboard
1st -Ben KAPPES (Cal Poly SLO)
2nd -Ben GOLDSTEIN (Cal Poly SLO)
3rd - Chase ADELSOHN (PLNU)
4th - Raymond Sales UCSC)
5th - Jake DeMatteo (USC)
6th - Tony Dakwar (Saddleback)
PLNU goes for the three-match sweep February 18-19 at the Lane in Santa Cruz, but there are quite a few teams ready to try make sure that doesn't happen.