Surf Tournament on the Surf

The Surf Tournament in Del Mar, California was always the big event of the year. It was a true showcase of athletic talent on some of the best-kept fields in the city. Usually reserved for all the hoity toity money bags of the lower upper class to run their horses in a game of polo. Then a couple weeks during the peak of summer the dirt lots would open up to vendors, and North County hotels would book up with players from all over the west coast. Boys and Girls!

I remember those morning competitions. The smell of the salt in the air, the damp aroma of the eucalyptus trees and the lingering weight of teenage sleep. I still romanticize the experience of being the first player to touch grass. Each cleat print cutting through the dew not yet burned off by the peaking afternoon sun or trampled by a horde of sweating athletes. The field was pure and untouched right until that moment when I, left my footprints in the grass!

Besides it being a showcase to come of the best athletic talent in the west it was also a place to network. And by network of course I mean meet boys. In between games if we weren't checking out all the freebies or tournament merch at the tents we were running around checking out the boy games. It was the first place I had a Powerbar. The OG energy bar. We used to slap the mini sample peanut butter and chocolate bars on top of each other and eat them as a combo.

Only a few of us on the team actually attended the same educational institute. Which means the opportunities by association grow exponentially with each friend that attends a school outside their district. San Diego being one of the largest county's in the US we were scattered all over the county. Each girls school represented a pearl of potential for man meat. Just so happened that some of the potential meat played for some of these competing teams.

I had a crush on the same guy since I first laid eyes on S.C when I saw him at a R.W.'s birthday party chasing after A.W. All my admiration went unrequested so I eventually just mentally files it as a hopeless crush from afar and moved on to more attainable goals. But I still liked to look, and boy was he something worth watching. His skill and composure with the ball and field awareness would take him to a life of professional soccer.

After games we would peruse the area looking for guys to flirt with. Not that I ever had enough self-confidence so actually talk to some. It was the first place I had a boyfriend watch me play competitively. Turns out I had a type and so did some of my teammates and they were for men. It was less than five miles from one of the classiest beaches in San Diego. Because of it's costal location we would get the morning fog lingering till about 11 am, keeping it cooler during what is usually a blistering summer. And post game remediation was a quick dip in the chilly pacific. As some of us got our licenses you can be sure it was one of the first places I'd go cruising with my bestie, E.O.

As the time approached to scout colleges the Surf Tournament also became a major market for scouting . Coaches would come from all over the US to gauge the up and coming talent. As I share in my book this was the arena where I met my future DI coach. My team won a many of gold medals at the Surf tournament under various different club names. I collected tournament t-shirts and had some great memories. It was a stapel experience and continues to be for many of the talented youth competing today.