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Archived News and Club History Highlights:

September 21, 2010: Club member and team rider, Ben Powell, and fellow members of the Sweetwater Surf Shop team win the 2010 Oakley Surf Shop Challenge National Championships in Huntington Beach, CA. Other members of the team include former club members Michael Powell and Tony Butler, along with Mason Barnes, Owen Moffett and Ross Stevens.

August 25-29, 2010: Club member and team rider, Drake Courie, places 2nd in the Pro Longboard division at the 48th annual East Coast Surfing Championships in Virginia Beach, VA.

July 18, 2010: Club member and recent UNCW graduate, Michael Powell wins the Reef Sweetwater Pro-Am Surf Fest in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

June 16, 2010: The Surf Club's team places 4th at NSSA Nationals on June 16 at Salt Creek, CA. Mike Powell places first in the Men's Division, Ben Powell places 3rd in the Men's division and Drake Courie places 4th in the Longboard division.

May 2010: Romy Sidelsky is the 2010-2011 co-recipient of the WBLA scholarship.

April 8-11, 2010: The Surf Club team wins the NSSA East Coast Championships in Sebastian Inlet, FL for the second consecutive year.

March 2010: Members of the UNCW Surf Club go on a spring break surf trip to Barbados.

December 2009: Hunter Hay, President of the Surf Club, is selected as a recipient of the second annual Tower7/WbLiveSurf.com scholarship.

August 2009: Surf Team Captain, Cody Leutgens, is selected to participate in the 2009 SERF Journalism Expedition in Indonesia.

June 2009: The UNCW Surf Club team places 2nd at the NSSA National Interscholastic Championships losing in overtime to Cal State - San Marcos. The team's 2nd place finish is the highest of any team from the east coast in the history of the competition. Ben and Mike Powell place 2nd and 3rd respectively in the contest's College Men's Division while the team's longboarder, Drake Courie, places 5th in the College Longboard division.

April 18-19, 2009: The Surf Club participated in the NSSA East Coast Championships in Sebastian Inlet (FL) on April 18-19. The club team fielded two teams in the competition. The “A” team won the event and the “B” team finished in a respectable 6th place. Two members of the “A” team also took top honors in the College Men's division, Mike Powell (1) and Ian Tilghman (2). Mike's brother, Ben Powell, placed 5th in the College Men's division. Local Kure Beach standout and UNCW team logger, Drake Courie also placed 6th in the College Longboard division. Surfing conditions were favorable throughout the event with a solid springtime ENE swell that produced chest to head-high waves. Winning these events earned the team an invitation to participate in the NSSA National Championships which will be held in California early this summer.

April 4, 2009: The UNCW Surf Club helps out with the LIVE for LIFE event sponsored by Thrust Clothing and held at Ogden Park in Wilmington. The event was held to raise money for a child in need of a heart transplant.

February 26, 2009: Surf photojournalist and UNCW alum, DJ Struntz, provides a talk to club members on his career and experiences.

February 26, 2009: The Surf Club tours the Wrightsville Glassing surfboard factory in Wilmington, NC.

December 2008: UNCW Surf Club trip to Costa Rica.

September 24, 2008: The UNCW Surf Club hosted the Wilmington premiere for "The Pursuit," the first blue-ray hi-def surf film at 17th Street Surf Shop.

August 19, 2008: UNCW Surf Team Captain, Cody Leutgens, recently won the 2008 SIMA Surfing America USA Championships in Huntington Beach, CA. Leutgens "left his fellow competitors looking for a combination of scores after posting a total of 17.00 points (8.83 and 8.17). Leutgens lit up a pair of righthanders with explosive, fins-free surfing." ... “I got a good wave right off the bat and had the confidence,” Leutgens said.  “From then on it was just rip, tear, and lacerate – RTL. I’m from the East Coast so surfing waves like this is an everyday thing.” Congratulations Cody! (more ...)

August 2008: Dr. Dylan McNamara joins the Surf Club as the Team Coach. Quiksilver sponsors the club's team.

March 15-17, 2008: UNCW Surf Team Wins at Scholastics! - Bethune Park, New Smyrna Beach, FL (March 15-17) - The East Coast Scholastics 2008 presented by TransWorld Surf started off with small surf but ended with a big win for the UNCW Surf Team. This year's event brought 4 different tag teams from the east coast to compete in two separate 50-minute tag team events on two different days to declare the winner. This prestigious award was once won by Kelly Slater's team back in 1987. The 2008 UNCW Surf Team members were Ben Powell, Chris Curry, Cody Leutgens and Mike Powell. After winning the first round, the boys were confident going into the finals. Curry started out the team with a huge first wave, nailing the lip three solid times before coming in to tag Ben. After seeing this wave from Chris, the entire team was pumped and ready for shredding. After Ben came out, his older brother Mike, our double whammy guy, finished strongly and used his double whammy on his second wave consisting of floaters and top turns. By the time the first three were done, the team was confident in the waves we had caught. Cody finished the team's performance as the last to go out only to keep the team's good standing. Every member of the team and Surf Club at UNCW was ecstatic when we raised that cup over our heads in triumph. Next year will come fast so the other teams better get ready for back-to-back wins from the UNCW Surf Team! -- Cody Leutgens, Team Captain

December 2007: Surf Club trip to Puerto Rico.

April 15-17, 2007: Cape Fear Surf Fest - The contest was a fantastic success! The UNCW Surf Club wants to thank all of the sponsors, judges, volunteers, and contestants for their support and participation. Despite the weather, it was a lot of fun and we hope to see you again next year! Check out the full story and photos.

February 1, 2007: article about the Surf Club in the Lumina News.

October 2006: The UNCW Surf Team placed first in the 3rd Annual Terrapin Collegiate Surf Contest in Ocean City, MD. Both the A and B teams placed first and second in the college tag-team finals at the Clean Water Classic, October 7-8, 2006 in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Eastern Surf Magazine features the Surf Team in its Blah Blahs section.

December 2005: UNCW Surf Club trip to Puerto Rico. Check out the trip story, "Going South" by Travis Varga and Margy Coxe.

October 8-9, 2005: At the Cape Fear Clean Water Classic, the University of Central Florida captured first, the University of West Florida grabbed second, the crew from Monmouth University held down the third spot, and the UNCW Surf Club finished fourth respectively. Congratulations to all the teams and a big thank you to all the schools for making the trip, enduring the weather, and making the contest a really fun experience!

April 7, 2005: Rip Current and Ocean Rescue Awareness Night - Dave Baker of Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue and Steve Pfaff of the National Weather Service-Wilmington, provided an educational awareness seminar on rip currents and ocean safety at UNCW.

March 18-21, 2005: Thirteen members of the UNCW Surf Club traveled to New Smyrna Beach for the ESA-GLOBE Scholastics competition.

November 30, 2004: Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo, Josh Vach (K38 Baja Grill), and Danielle and Shana Bourgeois (Sweetwater Surf Shop) attended the Surf Club's final meeting of the Fall semester. Club t-shirts were also distributed to members.

November 20, 2004: Jess Baunhofer, Jamie Crutchfield, Jess Dinardo, Ben Kearns, Claire Magee, Katie Martin, and Suzy Williamson competed in the inaugural Cold Water Classic. Sponsored by the Wrightsville Beach Chapter of the Christian Surfers International, the contest was held at Wrightsville Beach. Jess Baunhofer placed 2nd in the Men’s Division and Kearns placed 4th in that division as well. Martin placed 2nd in the Women’s Division, and Magee placed 3rd in the Women’s Open Longboard and 4th in the Women’s Division. Dinardo and Crutchfield placed 6th and 7th respectively in the Women’s Division as well.

March 2004: UNCW Surf Club trip to Costa Rica. PGNFA!

April 12-14, 2003: The UNCW Surf Club's team participates in the OP East Coast Scholastic Surfing Championships in New Smyrna Beach, FL. The team includes Pete Erickson, Jeff Weisler, Carl Wallin, Brad Sutton, and Peter Fritzler (club advisor).

March 21, 2003: Quiksilver's 'Unleash the East' tour stops at UNC Wilmington to premiere one of its newest films, "People Skills." Jason Borte, Josh Hoyer, Todd Morcom, and Cam Powell are on hand to sign autographs. The UNCW Surf Club hosts the event and Chip Hackler, a UNCW film professor, wins the surfboard donated by Whalebone Surf Shop.

January 24, 2003: UNCW's Randall Library hosts Surf Nite and features the films, "3 Degrees" by Poor Specimen, "20 Some Years Young," a senior project documentary on surfing by Pete Erickson (President of the Surf Club), and a preview for "Full Color," by local videographer Adam Hawley.

August 2002: Peter Fritzler is invited by Pete Erickson and Jeff Weisler to become the Surf Club's Advisor.

March 23-25, 2002: The UNCW Surf Club's team participates in the 2002 Freestyle Scholastics/AAU National Juniors Surfing Championships in New Smyrna Beach, FL. Members of the team include Pete Erickson, Jeff Weisler, Carl Wallin, and Brad Sutton.

July 25-28, 1990: The UNCW Surf Club's team places fourth behind UC-San Diego, Golden West Community College, and Point Loma Nazarene at the 1990 NSSA Scholastic Surfing Championships in Oceanside, CA. Robin Forti, a member of the team, places third in the Women's Shortboard division.


About the UNCW Surf Club:
With its earliest foundations dating back to 1977, the UNCW Surf Club is a young and rising organization since its recent renewal in 2001. The purpose of the UNCW Surf Club is to provide a a surf-oriented, recreational, instructional, competitive, and conservation-minded organization for current UNCW students, faculty, and staff. For more information on the history of the Surf Club, please see the Club's history page.
 

UNCW Surf Club  |  University of North Carolina Wilmington
601 South College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403
http://www.uncw.edu/surf  |