Schuyler McFerran Wins First-Ever ASP Women’s World Longboard Championship
Schuyler McFerran not only stunned herself, an international field of competitors, the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals), and contest organizers in Biarritz, France, she did it the hard way. Unseeded at the introduction, McFerran battled past 70 other competitors in eight heats, winning every one on her way to hoisting the championship trophy above the shifting sandbars of Cote de Basque.
Since her return from Europe, the soft-spoken McFerran has, as expected, enjoyed some well-deserved praise from high places. Joel Tudor, stylish San Diegan surfer and frontman for Joel Tudor Surfboards, (not to mention French surfing icon,) when recently located for comment, shared his thoughts thusly: “First of all, I was very stoked to know that Schuyler won her title on my favorite board, and the fact that she won it on a single-fin made it even better. She surfed in a manner that reflected, in my opinion, what ‘proper longboard style’ is all about. It makes me incredibly proud to have her as my team rider.”
As is common with most large-scale achievements, serious practice is a large part of what made perfection for McFerran. Schuyler’s introduction to surfing came early. “My very first time surfing was out at Pipes, in Encinitas,” she has admitted, “We were on a trip here from Montana, but I really started in Santa Barbara.” Soon thereafter, at age ten, young Schuyler was handed a 6’3″ egg-style surfboard by her father, Scott McFerran, and guided out to the cove waves of a break known (appropriately) |as the Queen of the Coast, a.k.a. Rincon.
Not only was Schuyler surfing very well at a young age, her coaches were her parents, a Californian couple with deep roots in the ocean lifestyle. “Scott and I grew up in Orange County,” Suellen McFerran, Schuyler’s mother, has said. “We met in sixth grade and started surfing around ninth or tenth grade. We moved to Santa Barbara for college and stayed there for ten years before moving to Montana.”
Schuyler’s parents have also instilled in her a strong system of values and have helped, without doubt, shape her polite, respectful, and positive demeanor. One to avoid the traps and time bandits found at any surf contest, Schuyler can more likely be found far down the beach sand, out of ear’s reach of the annoying announcers, focusing on the task at hand as her iPod headphones drown everything.
Known for being a friendly and honest person that gets along with the other female surfers on tour, Schuyler McFerran is also a determined competitor and feared competitor. Since first competing at the Roxy Wahine Classic at San Onofre when she was just eleven years old, McFerran has steadily collected a room’s worth of trophies and wall mounts. Some of her biggest accomplishments (prior to her championship title, of course,) include first place wins at multiple timed noseriding events; receiving the Queen of the Reef Award at 2003 Hansen/Machado Surf Classic at Cardiff Reef; and being invited to participate in the exclusive Malibu RB5X for Red Bull USA competition in 2004, held under 180,000 watts of light power in the middle if the night.
To further solidify McFerran’s place in surf lore Surfer Magazine included her in their “Hot 100” article, rating McFerran as one of the world’s best young surfers in the world. Even before winning the first-ever ASP Women’s World Longboard Championship in July, that Surfer issue says, “Schuyler proves that she’s not kidding around by taking the established guard to task at pro and club contests around the world. Under the guidance of the world’s best, she’ll easily develop into one of the most refined female longboarders of the modern epoch.”
