By Jake Howard
Long, sandy, salty days at the beach without a care in the world. Trophies and surf-star heroes. It’s a grom’s life, and 8-year-old Tanner Sandvig can’t get enough.
“I like to watch professional surfers ride crazy barrels and complete big airs,” said Tanner, who holds guys like Kelly Slater and John John Florence in the highest esteem because “they ride in barrels that look like closeouts, but sometimes they do the impossible and come out.”
A second-grader at Palisades Elementary School, “I was 4 years old when I really started to pick up surfing,” he said.
“I try to surf every kind of wave, so I surf at San Onofre, Churches, T-Street and Lowers,” he added.
Competing in his first Western Surfing Association season this year (he finished second), he also has plans to compete in the Waterman Tour in Tahiti, which is an endurance race that features stand-up paddling, prone paddling and swimming. It’s as much physical as it is mental.
“We are going on our first real surf trip to Tahiti in a couple of weeks,” Sandvig reveled. “In the next 10 years, I want to do surf trips around the world with my family and compete in competitions.”
comments (0)