Graham wins ISF women's longboard championship

Fallbrook High School sophomore Marissa Graham won the 2006-07 women’s longboard championship for the Interscholastic Surfing Federation’s San Diego Inland Section.

Graham won two of the season’s five events and placed no lower than seventh in any competition. She accumulated 8,050 points on the season to edge out Danae Rodriquez of Cathedral Catholic High School, who finished the season with 7,460 points.

Graham credits her success to a new board. “It’s a wonderful board. It’s my favorite board,” she said. “I don’t think I would have gotten as far as I did without that board.”

Another reason for Graham’s improvement in the standings over 2005-06, when she finished sixth, was that the team did not rotate surfers this season. The 2005-06 team had five girls who competed, and since each team event has two shortboard surfers and two longboard surfers the agreement at the beginning of the season was that each girl would sit out one of the meets.

Although Graham had a chance at the individual championship last year, the agreement was not changed and Graham did not participate in the final meet.

This year’s team had a permanent roster with alternates, although no alternates were used in longboard. “I got to go to all of them this year, which is kind of nice, so it kind of helped my standings a little bit,” Graham said.

The season began October 28-29 at Ocean Beach, where Graham finished seventh. “I didn’t do that well the first time,” she said.

Graham then won the November 18-19 competition at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, and she finished fifth at the Oceanside Pier meet December 16-17. By that third meet, she felt she had an opportunity to win the season championship.

The surfers returned to Moonlight Beach for a January 20-21 competition, and Graham once again took first place. That win, along with a fifth-place result for Rodriquez, put Graham into the points lead.

The final event of the season took place March 10-11 at La Jolla Shores. Brooke Velasquez of Rancho Buena Vista High School won the women’s longboard that weekend, but Velasquez had started the year at Carlsbad High School and had competed in the Coastal Section during the first four meets. Her Coastal Section points didn’t carry over to the Inland standings, and Velasquez finished 24th in the Inland season competition.

Graham placed second at La Jolla Shores while Rodriquez was third, providing the Bonsall youngster with the championship.

“It got a lot bigger than it was last year,” Graham said of the competition. “The girls also got a lot better, too, I noticed.”

Chad Holmes is Fallbrook’s coach this year. “He’s a wonderful coach,” Graham said.

“He spends so much time in the water,” Graham said of Holmes. “It’s really nice to have him.”

Fallbrook placed two surfers in the women’s longboard top ten; Sarah Karl finished seventh for the season after an eighth-place showing at La Jolla Shores.

“There’s a lot of good girls, and most of the girls are very nice,” Graham said of the ISF. “It’s a fun contest. It’s really cool.”

Graham is the daughter of Mark and Lori Graham. “I’m really blessed to have great parents who support me so much and a good board and a lot of friends who helped me,” she said.