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Wednesday, March 29, 2000

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Kauai home-schooled junior Dustin Barca makes a deep
cut on a set at Turtle Bay during the NSSA Regional
Championships..

North Shore
board meeting

Seramur, Dosland top
neighbor island surfers in
NSSA regional meet

By Tim Crouse
Special to the Star-Bulletin

HIGH school surfer Sena Seramur is very familiar with the North Shore -- but not the one she's competing at this week.

Seramur normally surfs on the north shore of Kauai, near her Hanalei home. But this week she is participating in the National Scholastic Surfing Association regional championships at Turtle Bay.

More than 200 surfers are entered in the meet that will determine the "unofficial" state champions. The sport of surfing is not sanctioned by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association.

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Sena Seramur, 1999 NSSA Hawaii surfer of the year:
"If you can surf the (bad) waves at home, you can
surf anywhere."

The top performers will advance to the NSSA national championships at Lower Trestles, Calif.

Seramur, a sophomore at Kapaa High School, has already won a barrel full of trophies.

In the past two years, she has won six national championships, including titles in both divisions that the NSSA championships offer for females.

She also was named the NSSA-Hawaii Surfer of the Year in 1999 -- the first time a female has won the award.

The 15-year old has been riding waves since she was 4 years old. She said her dad, Al, wakes her up at 6 a.m. to take her out for a surfing session before the school day starts. Then he picks her up from school, and they hit the waves again.

Tom Dosland, 15, of Maui has been surfing for five years. The sophomore at King Kekaulike High School credits his father and friends at school for getting him hooked.

In the few years he's been surfing, Dosland has had the opportunity to surf up and down the West Coast.

He said his favorite spot on the mainland is Lower Trestles.

At the NSSA national championships there last year, Dosland took second place in the Explorer boys division, and third in the Juniors Open division.

Both surfers said there slight differences between surfing on their native islands and surfing on Oahu.

"Surfing on Kauai is more laid back, there are not as many crowds," Seramur said. "Here (on Oahu) you have to fight for your waves. You have to be more aggressive."

Seramur said it's easy to get nervous because there is more publicity on Oahu, but she just tries to find a comfort level in the water, and stay focused on the waves. She said it doesn't really make a difference that some of the competitors she will face live on Oahu and have more experience with the North Shore waves.

"If you can surf the (bad) waves at home, you can surf anywhere," Seramur said.

"The waves are more consistent here, but there's not that much difference," Dosland said.

He said one difference is the amount of people catching waves on Oahu.

"I surf with the same guys every time on Maui," he said.

Dosland said his ideal wave is 4 to 5 feet, but he has lived to tell about getting caught in 10-foot swells.

He said is doesn't matter what the conditions are like this week, he'll just try his best.

Seramur and Dosland hope to eventually make their living from surfing.

"I'd be getting paid for what I love to do," she said.