Surfer Nicholl wins pair of national awards

For the UCF Surf Team, the 2011 National Interscholastic Championships held in Salt Creek Beach, Calif., was a weekend of firsts and lasts.

During the three-day competition, which began June 16, team captain Amy Nicholl was given two new awards, and three of the men's short-board contestants, who have graduated or are graduating this summer, participated in their last competition with the UCF team.

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Nicholl, who has been surfing since she was nine years old, received the Captain of the Year award and the Chuck Allen Memorial Trophy.

"Out of all the guys and girls in colleges, they chose me for the first time, which was unexpected and really cool," said Nicholl, who placed third in the college women's division.

The New Smyrna Beach native was spoken highly of by her teammates and club members.

"She definitely works hard, and she's a great team captain, so we're stoked about that," said risk management officer Josh Baer.

"Amy – she gets good grades, she's a leader, she encourages us all to do good things, so I feel like that definitely makes us stand out as representing UCF in a good way," John Aylmer, the new president of the club, said. "We're not the stereotypical surfers."

Other team members echoed similar sentiments about the prevailing surfer stereotype.

"The team as well as the club has been a huge learning experience meaning that I'm absolutely putting this on my résumé for grad school," said the club's most recent president, Travis Eubanks. "We're not a bunch of burnouts. There actually are smart surfers."

The team traveled to California a few days before the competition began to practice and acclimate themselves to the west coast's waves.

Eubanks said it took some time to get used to the cold water.

"Coming from just a pair of board shorts to a wetsuit, it's a dramatic change in weight," Eubanks said. "It changes your balance completely."

Nicholl agreed.

"It's critical to practice on the waves that the contest was at," Nicholl said. "At the same time, everyday, the waves are different."

Eubanks said that team practices are helpful, but when it comes to the actual competition, it's just you out on the water.

"You only get as far as you let yourself get," Eubanks said. "It takes a lot of power and a little bit of luck."

Current club president John Aylmer focused solely on his own abilities, rather than what his competitors were doing.

"Before I paddled out in my heat, I didn't even look who I was surfing against because it really doesn't matter," Aylmer said. "It's not going to make me surf any better or worse, I was going to try my hardest either way."

UCF's team placed 13th out of 17 teams.

"I feel like we represented UCF as best we could," Aylmer said. "I knew it was going to be a really tough competition because [California-based competitors] surf better waves more often."

Baer attributed the team's placement to the increase in professional surfers returning to school for a degree in case surfing doesn't work out.

"In the past, there used to be a couple awesome teams that would just kind of dominate, but now every team is good, every team is well-rounded," Baer said. "In the future, I would like to do better, but in the end, we still finished top 15 in the nation."

Baer, Eubanks and Travis Gleason, the treasurer, are the three members who have graduated or will be graduating this summer.

Aylmer said the three were very welcoming when he first joined.

"They brought a lot of laughter to the team, but I feel like they're still going to be around or we'll still be in contact with them," Aylmer said. "Losing them, we're going to lose some really good surfers."