Brevard County Claims Big Wins in National Surfing Comps

Hillard Grossman

Reprint from Florida Today 5 July 2023

While Taylor Swift has been electrifying stadium audiences on her tour this summer, a couple of Brevard County surfers also were captivating crowds on California beaches, ushering in their own eras of East Coast dominance in an otherwise left coast-dominated sport.

Melbourne’s Kylie Pulcini, 15, won two huge national titles to etch her name among the best U.S. amateur surfers of all time, and Cape Canaveral’s Gavin Idone, 18, also brought home a pair of national titles in the longboard division, despite being stung by a stingray.

Gavin Idone, 18, of Cape Canaveral enjoys his victory ride after claiming the NSSA Scholastic Varsity Longboard title at Dana Point, Calif., the first of his two national titles this summer.

Not to be outdone was an impressive performance by Satellite Beach’s Jonathan Wallhauser, who cruised to the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) national title for collegiate longboarders while competing in his fourth year for the University of Central Florida team.

Just eight years from when she first hopped onto a surfboard at Todd Holland’s School of Surf in Cocoa Beach, the 5-foot-4 Pulcini was winning the Rip Curl Grom Search National Final for under-16 girls at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, Calif., last month. She then won the under-18 (oldest division) at the USA Surfing’s U.S. Championships at the famed Lower Trestles wave break farther west.

“My dad had to carry that (Terry McCann Memorial Cup trophy) through the airport; it’s probably 20 pounds,” laughed Pulcini, a Ron Jon team rider who will be enrolled in 10th grade in the Florida Virtual School when summer ends.

At the man-made wave ranch, where a locomotive chugs along a track to generate enough force to create waves, Pulcini was awe-struck.

“It was my first time, actually, but it’s super sick,” she said after defeating Eden Walla of San Clemente, Calif., in the final. “It’s a pretty hard place to surf unless you’re a world-class surfer (who competes in contests) or pay (big money) to practice there.

“I was afraid to miss a wave, but they have people there telling you when to ‘paddle, paddle, paddle!’ I just didn’t want to get too excited and fall. I had a couple of good runs.”

At the USA Surfing event, Pulcini won the major division, and that is no easy task, head judge Gordon Lawson said.

“It was really awesome to see her win an event like that,” he said. “Lower Trestles is the best venue in North America, and it’s the hardest amateur event all year. … And when she won at the wave pool, it was a big deal, because it was the inaugural (Grom Search) event.”

Pulcini said she celebrated with her friends, Remy Todd and Alana Lopez, just “blasting some music, chilled and ate ice cream.”

For Holland, a former world title contender on the Association of Surfing Professionals circuit, it was rewarding to see one of his pupils do so well.

“I was so stoked for her, and we’re so proud of her,” Holland said. “She was calling me before the heats and after her heats. She has the most upbeat, positive attitude of anybody I’ve ever met.”

He said it’s “too early” to compare her progress to what Marks had done, “but she’s doing really incredible.”