If everybody had an ocean
Across the USA
Then everybody’d be surfin’
Like Californ-i-a
You’d see them wearing their baggies
Huarache sandals too
A bushy, bushy blond hairdo
Surfin’ USA
— Brian Wilson, 1963
America’s genius poet of the summer sun, Brian Wilson, is gone. But the music he brought to the world, Beach Boy anthems for a quixotic surfer culture, will live forever.
Brian Wilson did not surf, but a young surfer, Saxon Baltzer, who loves surfing and the world Wilson artistically created with his songs, does.
The Huntington Beach, California, resident recently won the National Scholastic Surfing Association Varsity Championship at Dana Point.
The reigning California State Surfing Champion, Baltzer took first place in the longboard competition by coming from last place to first with an amazing answered-prayer final run that earned him an 8.79 score and the trophy.
Baltzer did this just 52 days before he was due to depart on a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On July 28, he will enter the Missionary Training Center in preparation for his mission to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (Spanish-speaking).
Scoping out waves, rising, riding, hanging 10 and working the board like Wilson would a piano is what Baltzer does. His skill, acumen, balance and timing are elite.
You could put Baltzer’s moves to music: a guy coasting on nature’s highway under a blazing sun.
“My parents started me surfing. But I loved surfing as a kid because I just felt so connected to the ocean,” said Baltzer, who lives five minutes from the beach. “I just love being in the ocean. Whenever we travel, like inland, it can’t be for more than a week, because I just need the waves. I just feel close to God’s presence because it’s one of his beautiful creations.”
Baltzer was league champion and MVP of the Sunset League, arguably one of the most competitive leagues in California, including surfing communities of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. These were the areas the Beach Boys, featuring Brian and his brothers Dennis and Carl, drew their inspiration from for their sand and water ballads.
Baltzer was inducted into the Edison High Hall of Fame, a school that produced BYU tackle Romney Fuga. His state title led him to the lofty label of national surfing champion at the high school level.
Dedicated schedule
For years, Baltzer got up at 5:30 a.m. to attend Latter-day Saint seminary, taught by his father, Tad. He got in the water with his high school surf team at 6:30 a.m. for practice.
“Because I’ve surfed for so long, I think my skills have just gradually gotten better and better to the point where I realized I could compete,” he said. ”There’re a bunch of local contests that happened in Huntington Beach. There’s a good competitive scene, and so I figured I’d do a couple just to see how it was before high school and those were fun. So I decided to do it during high school because we have a surf team. So I joined the surf team.”
“I mainly compete in longboarding, which is where you ride a bigger board, and you’re doing hang 10s and hang fives,” he continued. “What the judges are looking for in longboarding is a combination of nose rides, where you just walk up to the nose, you hang 10 or hang five. They’re looking for a combination of nose rides and turns, staying in the pocket and reading the wave nicely,” said Baltzer.
In competition, judges award surfers for high difficulty moves on the board, like hanging 10.
“A hang 10 is basically when you start to walk forward, and inertia will push the board back into the wave,” he said. “You can actually perch yourself on the very front of the board and the wave will crash on the back of the board, holding you up so it feels like you’re levitating across the wave.
“You’re basically just flying because of the lift you get. Hanging 10 is when you get both feet over the edge of the front of the board. It’s really, really hard to do, because the wave is dynamic and it changes every second. Hanging five is when you just have one foot over the board.”
Faith and prayers
A devout believer in Christ, Baltzer plans to humbly give up the sport to serve his mission for a few years. In winning his competition and becoming national champion, he credits answered prayers that led to several tender mercies that weekend in mid-June.
Baltzer won nationals on the weekend, but the Wednesday prior he had left his coveted long board at a surf spot, which isn’t unusual for surfers at that beach. On competition Saturday, he woke up and discovered he didn’t have his board.
“I was freaking out, and my mom was freaking out too. I had to use my coach’s surfboard for the heats on Saturday because nationals are spread over two days, Saturday and Sunday.
“After those heats, we went back to the spot, and I found my board there with a guy who had held it for me. He had found it on Friday, the day before, and he held it because he knew it was someone’s special board.
“He waited until 10 o’clock that Friday night for someone to pick it up, but no one did. So he came back Saturday morning and waited all day until I picked it up around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
“That was an answer to my prayers because I really love my board, and I had prayed that someone would have it for me or that I’d be able to find it. His name is Dimitri; I don’t know his last name.”
The board is worth about $1,300, but to Baltzer, it’s priceless.
In perhaps proof of just how good Baltzer is, he went through preliminaries with a borrowed longboard.
“On the first day, Saturday, I got through my first heat really well. I scored a 9.93 out of 10, which was one of the highest scores of the event. In the next heat, I wasn’t doing well at the beginning. I was in dead-last, fourth-place, with maybe a minute left. I got an OK wave, but I needed another one to back it up.
“I prayed for a wave, and one came in, and I got a really good ride, an 8-point ride. That was another answer to my prayers, and it got me through the semifinal. Then, on Sunday, for the final, I had my board back. During the final, I fell on three waves in a row; it wasn’t going well. Before all my heats, I prayed to do well, but mostly to surf my best.
“With about two minutes left in the final, I really needed a good wave, so I prayed again. I saw a wave coming and thought, ‘I have to make this one good.’ I took off on the wave and milked it all the way through. I got a couple of good nose rides, and it was another 8-point ride, the best of the heat. When I looked back, my family was all cheering because they realized I had won. It was just answered prayer after answered prayer. I could tell that Heavenly Father was proud of what I was doing.”
After his mission service, Baltzer plans on going to college, and if there’s a surf team, he’ll toss in his name. Professionally, the surfer circuit is another opportunity to earn anywhere from $100,00 to $200,000 in prize money and sponsorships if you excel.
Baltzer is the oldest of four — his siblings Micah and Dane are both 16 and his sister Kylie is 14. With their parents Tad and Amber, they are a surfing family.
They often go to the North Shore of Oahu, where Baltzer’s grandfather, Paul Gustavson, has a condo. Gustavson is the author of the book “Running into the Wind,” which is about Bronco Mendenhall and his work as BYU’s head football coach. Mendenhall is an avid surfer.
Mendenhall, now the head football coach at Utah State, would appreciate surfer Baltzer. Wouldn’t you love to see the pair compete against each other at Newport Beach or the North Shore?
Money would be on Baltzer. He’s paid his dues and put in the time. But Mendenhall would love it: Baltzer is his kind of athlete, indeed.
