Ana Mancebo | Staff Writer
Panthers are catching waves and sunshine rays with the FIU Surf Club.
The club, created in the Fall 2022 semester, creates a community where anybody who loves the ocean can unite in the sport of surfing.
Welcoming both experienced and novice surfers, the club hosts regular surfskate practices where members can simulate surfing while being on land.
“Everyone’s been getting better every single time we go out,” said Daniel Calleiro, a marketing major going into his junior year of FIU, who has been surfing since his sophomore year of high school.
“It’s like a whole big family out there; we all help each other. We’ll just ditch our boards and leave them on the sand to go in the water and help the new surfers,” said Calleiro.
The rich social life of the club carries on outside of surfing. Members have joined together for wakeboarding, beach cleanups and movie nights.
One event in particular took the Surf Club beyond FIU to Palm Coast for the King of Clubs competition.
In the King of Clubs, surf clubs from different universities in Florida come together to compete against one another.
“There were hundreds of people,” said Calleiro.
“At the end of the night, we all went to the campsite and the people that were there for the competition were all camping on the beach. It was a big party, it was just a really good time.”
The King of Clubs event isn’t the only thing that showcases how competition and community coexist in the FIU Surf Club. The club itself is planning to hold tryouts for a competitive Surf Team this August.
(Check out clips of the surf club in action below!)
“My favorite thing about this club is the potential it has,” said Kalani Giesenow, the club’s Outreach Coordinator and a junior finance major.
“It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s valuable. We could literally turn it into whatever we desire. Just seeing the paths we can take [with the sport] is extremely fun.”
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