By Jake Howard
Showing up and blowing up, San Clemente’s Clayton Hill has been on a hot one as of late. A seventh-grader representing Bernice Ayer Middle School, he’s been posting some solid results in recent Scholastic Surf Series (SSS) and Western Surfing Association (WSA) events.
Starting at the beginning of October, 12-year-old Hill earned a very respectable fifth-place finish at the SSS contest in Oceanside. Scoring a 9-point ride in the final, he just couldn’t find a backup wave to put him even higher on the podium.
Hill built momentum from that strong showing by the middle of the month, competing in a WSA event in San Diego, where he battled through four rounds and won his repechage heat to make the final and finish third.
Along the way, the talented goofy-footer has also picked up support from Electric Eyewear and is just coming off a training trip to the Waco Surf facility in Texas.
When he’s not chasing contests or scoring on surf trips, you can usually find Hill in the water surfing near his home in the Riviera neighborhood or ripping at T-Street or Trestles.
Hill is a grom on the rise, and it’s only matter of time before we see him standing tall in the winner’s circle.
If you have a candidate for Grom of the Week, we want to know. Send an email to jakehoward1@gmail.com.
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