Wheeler Hasburgh (above), a 16-year-old with surfer good looks — he is, by now, a veteran surfer — has “caught air” on waves at Windansea, and performed to raise money for the fall Luaus and Legends cancer research event through UC San Diego by Scripps Pier.
But his palette is much bigger than La Jolla Shores or other local waves. Hasburgh, accompanied by his mother Cheri, is traveling the world, pursuing his dream, World Surfing League (WSL) contests from El Salvador to Nags Head, N.C., and beyond — all the while garnering high school credits via distance learning as he progresses toward graduation.
Wheeler tells a hilarious story of taking a class test, all the while huddled in a beach bathroom at a WSL qualifier in La Libertad, El Salvador, as 12 other entrants roamed just outside the door. “I had to show them (test administrators) that I was on my own, doing my own work,” shares the junior, who plans to enroll locally in person at San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas later this fall following a hiatus with mom in their favorite surfing and living location, Sayulita, Nayarit, on the border with Jalisco in Mexico. He’ll spend six weeks there before heading up to the States.
One imagines the student wielding his device screen to-and-fro to convince distance officials his exam results are valid.
Another favored location is Barra de la Cruz in Oaxaca. The younger Hasburgh, who shows considerable skill on his board in zig-zagging up and down a wave on an extended ride in a video he shares across the aisle, says he competes in the “Open” division of pro contests, including against fellow surfers who are much older. Some events are staged merely to give participants an opportunity to gain more points, while other major events are sanctioned by the WSL as official competitions. It’s heady stuff for a teen halfway through high school.
Hasburgh aced his AP Spanish course, having lived and interacted with folks in Sayulita. He has also taken AP psychology via distance in preparation for SDA’s block academic schedule. His personal email address includes the term “chidas,” slang for “cool,” as in “olas chidas,” cool or good waves. An acquaintance uses the term “suave,” which Hasburgh waves off as passe, slang used by an older generation.
The travelers were intercepted on the way to a competition in Virginia Beach, Va., followed by another in Nags Head, N.C. “There are good waves in Nags Head,” asserts Cheri. Who would have thought?
