Shane Freyberger, sophomore global business major and President of the CSUSM Surf Club hopes are for the team to come together for a national regional championship. Freyberger has been surfing for 12 years since he was eight-years-old and has been continuing since, nothing is slowing him down.

As President, his duties are to “pick the team, create a roster for each individual competition throughout the year, update and help manage travel, create and record reasons of expenditure, reach out to sponsors . . . schedule and organize practices and last but not least helping with the creation of apparel,” said Freyberger.

CSUSM’s surf team compete against other colleges at the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) Southwest Collegiate Competition. From along the coast from up North in Santa Cruz to Cardiff-by-the-Sea are most of their competitions held for the Southwest Conference.

Their recent competition, semi-finals, was held in Huntington Beach, CA on Jan. 20, where Freyberger received ninth place of 10th.  “My semi-final results have shown me that you can never cut yourself short,” said Freyberger.

In regards to competing as a team Freyberger said, “it is important to get semi-finals finish because the team gains points every time someone advances through a round.”

One of the struggles of a surfing competition Freyberger said is timing and surf conditions. “Getting guys in the water for their heat on time, and the NSSA holding event where conditions and surf can be very minimal. Rain or shine though, the team is ready to send it and get a good result,” he said.

Currently, CSUSM ranks third place of 31 in collegiate school from the East and West Coast, with a total recent score of 79, Point Loma Nazarene University beat them with 147.

As for the best surf a “pipeline” is at North Shore in O’ahu, Hawaii. Freyberger said, “it was such a new and humbling experience. I got slammed on my back scared and broke a board, but on this same trip I got some of the best barrels of my life.