WITH THAT , the season began to play out . The Triton team narrowly lost the first contest to Golden West College , but rallied from there . A little more practice and surfing mock heats together was all it took — the group learned to maximize 15-minute heat times and exploit the roster depth . More importantly , with the time spent together , the group bonded with a fun-above-all-else attitude . This led to a sense of relaxed positivity , which , in turn , led to confidence . As far as the group was concerned , winning was great and all , but it was just the cherry on top . Hitting the road together as a like-minded , happy-go-lucky , ocean-addicted entity — that was the real win . As such , contest road trips became a reward within themselves [ 6 ]. And while other colleges could occasionally match the talent of the top one or two Tritons , they would eventually fall prey to UC San Diego ’ s multi-division cohesion . Some of our standout winning machines included Mark Brolaski ’ 82 , Craig Schieber ’ 85 , Steve Colton ’ 83 , Isabelle Fried ’ 84 , and Bill Lerner ’ 84 .
From there , the team finished the rest of the season with a 10-4 win / loss record , then narrowly lost a national title shot at a single , post-season event . The writing on the wall was clear , however — a National Championship was inevitable . The following year , the team continued to ride their momentum and went through the regular season undefeated , and with additions to the roster like Peter Curry ’ 86 , Matt Robertson ’ 88 , and Mike Glevy ’ 89 , the Tritons won the National Title two seasons later in 1983 .
6 . As well as the UCSD team performed , the real winners were the contest weekends themselves . Saturday contests usually extended into full-weekend road trips . A contest in Santa Barbara , for example , would involve a Jalama Beach side trip and a night of partying in Isla Vista . View the stories , relive the memories , and add your own online : tritonmag . com / surf
7 . “ To claim ” in surfing refers to celebratory gesticulations made immediately after a good ride . Raising one ’ s arms overhead in selfcongratulations is the most common form of claiming , but it can get as elaborate the spontaneous adoption of a cowboy persona shooting imaginary pistols . Seriously .
1983 was an appropriate year to is generally frowned upon . It ’ s known win a national title , as El Niño brought to be considered bad style . gigantic surf to our shores . No other
Which in no way should diminish team on the coast had to consistently the accomplishment — with no recruiting , face ( or attempt to survive ) such a tiny budget , and the toughest academic challenging conditions as those found workload of any college participating , at Black ’ s that year . Man , how sketchy UC San Diego was the number one surf was it out there this morning ? As such , team in the nation during one of the a national championship was a fitting biggest years of Pacific surf ever measured … it ’ s something to be extremely and well-deserved reward . Yet because the Nationals were proud of . held at the end of the school year , few
Even if most of the campus was UC San Diego students or members of oblivious to the team ’ s accomplishments , word had spread within the the administration ever became aware that their school had risen to number surf community . A premier university one in the country . By the start of the with a premier surf team and access to fall quarter , it was old news . Surfers a premier surf spot became a self-fulfilling prophecy — it drew the attention of aren ’ t really the kind to brag about their achievements , either . In the surf world , talented surf-scholars from around in fact , drawing too much attention to the country and helped build an even yourself and “ claiming ” [ 7 ] a performance stronger group in subsequent years .
BLACK ’ S BEACH sits below a series of cliffs , “ That key turned anyone who had it accessible only by hiking trails or one into a prick …” drivable road with a locked gate at the – Sander Nauenberg ’ 00 top . Years ago , UC San Diego
“ I was under the mis-guided impression administration gave a key to this gate to that we all got a key … you know , to the surf team , unwittingly kicking off a
‘ practice ’. But the entire team got one key . saga of rapacity , elitism , backstabbing ,
In the early ’ 90s the key belonged to the double-crossing , occasional benevolence , team captain , and the rest of us deceit , hilarity , subterfuge , and egregious were out of luck …” carrot-dangling . In literature , the Key to
– Miguel Kagan ’ 93
Black ’ s would lie somewhere between The Monkey ’ s Paw and The One Ring to
“ For a few summers it was designated to
Rule Them All . the surfer who lived the closest to Black ' s .
Judging by the drama , you ’ d think the I lucked out because I was still living at beach lies at the base of Mount Doom . home across the street from Revelle .
Hardly — it ’ s a mere 15-minute journey by Any of the team could stop by to pick up foot . But with an item so coveted , human the key if they wanted a surf !” nature has its way . The grand irony is that
– Izzy Tihanyi ’ 89
it takes more energy to paddle out and “ I applied to UCSD because of Black ' s , catch one single Black ’ s wave than it does and I joined the surf team because of to hike there and back … but don ’ t tell that THE KEY !” to a keyholder . Once they have one , they – Rob Tremmel ’ 86 become master of the universe :
Read the full key stories and contribute your own at : tritonmag . com / key
38 TRITON | FALL 2020