A team of local surfers proudly represented Encinitas in the Usher Cup World Club Challenge, held Jan. 18-21 at Snapper Rocks in Gold Coast, Australia. The Encinitas Boardriders contingent included veteran surfer Cody Steele, 47 and up-and-comers Caleb Crozier, 22; Jett Maughan, 15; and 14-year-old Kaydn Persidok.
The grassroots international surfing event invited the top teams from Bali, New Zealand, Hawaii, Japan and the United States set to compete against Australia’s finest. The Encinitas crew was among six teams that qualified from the U.S. including surfers from Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Cruz, San Clemente and the Space Coast team from the East Coast.
"The Usher Cup was truly inspiring with how well it was put together and organized," said Steele. "Team Encinitas Boardriders had the best time sharing stories and waves with everyone."
At 47 years old, Steele was the most senior member of the team. He went down to Australia with his family of seven in tow— his wife Aubri and himself traveling with five was an adventure all its own.
Now working in real estate, Steele surfed professionally for eight years when he was younger. Surfing was a family affair: He grew up in Cardiff, Encinitas and Solana Beach with a pair of surfer parents (his mother still rides) and his brother Taylor Steele had a long career as a surf filmmaker, promoting the sport with his production company Poor Specimen.
Steele is passionate and poetic about surfing: "The ocean is like one big giant dance floor and all of us ocean dwellers have our own music and dance routine that makes us who we are," read a recent pre-Usher Cup post on Instagram. "Over the years my choice of dancing music has definitely changed. I would say it’s a little more refined."
Steele surfs as much as possible and got involved with the Encinitas Boardriders in 2021. The club fields a team of local surfers of all ages with a mission to “mentor our youth, foster their future, safeguard our past, advocate a healthy lifestyle, support local charities and businesses building a sense of community.”
In Australia, boardrider clubs are a way of life with clubs competing against other cities and bringing the whole community out to support the sport: “Australia is very passionate, we’re about 10 to 15 years behind them and catching up,” said Steele.
Encinitas competes in the West Coast Boardrider Series, with contests against cities like Carlsbad and Oceanside divisionally as well as taking on cities such as Huntington Beach, Ventura and Santa Cruz. At events like their annual community surf contest, local love and support is building with each year.
“Encinitas is plugging along, we have so many good surfers and so much talent,” Steele said. “There are 100 kids at Seaside alone that rip.”
The club was honored to earn the invite to the Usher Cup this year and selected “a team of absolute hammers” from the club to represent Encinitas in Australia.
“It was really, really cool but the weather wasn’t as great as we were hoping,” Steele said. “It was challenging conditions, smaller and kinda windy….The wave is like a machine, it runs for hundreds of yards.”
The Encinitas team lost by three points and unfortunately didn’t advance: “The skill level and talent there was pretty high. A lot of guys we were surfing against could still make it on WSL right now,” Steele said.
While the team didn’t make the finals, Usher Cup was a great opportunity for the younger surfers to experience a part of the world they had always dreamed of going and to learn so much from the sessions. The whole team benefited from the competition and the Australian hospitality.
During contest layover days, Steele took his family to a wildlife sanctuary to hang out with kangaroos and koalas, explored Byron Bay and surf at The Pass. After the competition he and his wife got to catch some tennis action at the Australian Open and the whole family surfed an urban wave pool in Melbourne.
As the Usher Cup marked the end of the 2023 season, the Encinitas Boardriders are looking ahead for 2024. Tryouts are being held for all ages and Encinitas will host the first event in April at Seaside Reef. The all-inclusive club hopes to get as many community members involved as possible: “The future is local."
Learn more at encinitasboardridersclub.com
This story originally appeared in Encinitas Advocate .
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