Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Joey Spencer
Sophomore Joey Spencer hits the beach to catch some waves; for him, surfing is a lifestyle.
October 19, 2011
Nicole Melendy, Staff Writer
The waves crashing down, foam bubbling on the sand, the warm sun beaming down, light reflecting on the ocean surface, the mist of the ocean hitting your face. Sophomore Joey Spencer is no stranger to this scene.
Spencer has been “shredding waves” for about 11 years now. When he was four, his father took him out into the ocean and taught him how to surf.
Spencer and his father aren’t the only surfers in the Spencer household. His older brother Jimmy and younger sister Sally also know how to surf.
Spencer has used his years of experience to teach junior Tommy Going how to surf, as well. Teaching people how to surf must run in the Spencer family. He also likes surfing with juniors Savannah Brown and Nicole Thatch.
Spencer’s favorite place to surf is New Symrna Beach on the east coast of Florida.
He has a five-foot, six-inch Orion surfboard that he likes to take out at dawn and surf all day or until the waves die down. The biggest wave he has ever surfed was a double overhead–a wave that measures twice as high as its rider.
He and his brother like to go to the New Symrna Beach to surf together.
”I like surfing with my brother, he’s pretty chill,” Spencer said.
Spencer goes surfing whenever he has the chance. If there are waves, then he is out there in the water until he can’t be out there anymore. To him, surfing is his life, and he couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if it didn’t have surfing in it.
Spencer claims that his favorite part of the surfing experience is “getting barreled.” To “get barreled” in surfing is to catch a wave and ride the inside of it, rather than the top of it. This way, a surfer is caught in the “barrel” of the wave, essentially riding through a tunnel of water.
When he surfs, he feels like the time just flies by. When he catches a wave, it’s gone before he knows it but the feeling and experience remain perfectly in his mind. He can keep those memories until he can go surfing again to make some new ones. It’s not hard to find this surfing kid catching some waves.
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December 7th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Keep it up Joey! everyone loves surfing, follow your dreams and keep hitting the waves!!
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December 8th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
This is a great story! who would have thought!?!?
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December 8th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
I think its nice our school sees what other things kids do outside of school rather than just sports. joey is great at surfing.
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December 9th, 2011 at 7:35 am
This story was written pretty well and you do not here much about surfing since we live on the gulf. It is nice to here about talents/sports that are talked about often.
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February 26th, 2012 at 8:57 pm
I liked this article because surfing is not a typical sport people on our coast do. It is also nice to see what other sports kids at our school do.
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