Quick Take
You’ve probably never heard of surf lifesaving — but Santa Cruz is quietly becoming a national powerhouse at it, writes Dan Ackerstein, who manages the Westcliff Surf Lifesaving Club. Yes, we all saw lifeguard Ryder Williams get national attention for his heroic Seabright save, but what you might have missed is this year, six Santa Cruz-area athletes earned spots on the U.S. youth national team. That means 30% of the Americans headed to the world championships hail from the 831 area code.
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Let’s begin with a basic premise: Sports are kind of silly.
Don’t misunderstand; I love sports. In high school, I tried pretty much anything that would let me on a team. Since then, I’ve played a dozen sports and coached more, from middle school cross-country to college ultimate frisbee.
I LOVE sports.
But for the most part, sports are just distractions. Learning to put a ball through a hoop, or to hit it with a stick, or kick it into a net … these are things that are incredibly difficult and absurdly fun.
Surf lifesaving is different.
In competitive surf lifesaving, you take a bunch of super-fit athletes (think CrossFit, but at the beach) who are dedicated to public service (think firefighters, but in shorts), give them a heap of craft and tools that they use every day to save lives (surfboards, rescue tubes, bricks, throw lines) and tell them to go see who’s the best at it.
It’s junior lifeguards on the best, healthiest possible steroids.
And Santa Cruz, despite its small size and cold water, is secretly becoming great at it.
Earlier this month, six Santa Cruz youth athletes turned in an unprecedented performance at the U.S. Lifeguard Association National Championships and were named to the official United States youth national team for international competition in 2026 and 2027.
Four athletes – Natalie Allen, Isla Cooper, Nico Van Der Meer and Caetano Dawson – will compete at the World Championships in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, later this year, while two more – Drake Harper and Zoe Pochet – are alternates who plan to join the team for the World Rescue Cup in Onjuku, Japan, in 2027.
To put this in perspective, of the 12 Americans racing in South Africa, a full third of the competitors will hail from the 831 area code.
And geographically, the numbers are even more absurd. Santa Cruz County’s 29 miles represents roughly 0.03% of the total United States’ 95,000 miles of coastline.
Yet our little stretch of sand produced 30% of the national team, all of whom call Cowell Beach their home beach.
All six athletes train and compete for the Westcliff Surf Lifesaving Club, a training and service group based here in Santa Cruz, which I manage. When Westcliff was formed in 2022, only a handful of Santa Cruz athletes had ever made the team (current Santa Cruz City lifeguards Ben Coffey and Sae Ackerstein and Capitola lifeguard Madalyn Price most recently).
But last year, Santa Cruz burst onto the scene, sending two paddleboard racers (City/Westcliff’s Finley Dobkin and Capitola’s Cheryl Brightfield) and a flags competitor (Westcliff’s Hayden Mandell) to New Zealand.
Surf lifesaving athletes are the best of what sport can be.
The training is grueling and the ocean unforgiving, but the skills these athletes hone and the fitness they gain, are essential to the job they do on Santa Cruz beaches every summer. We saw this at the end of July, with the national attention rookie lifeguard Ryder Williams got for his work saving 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai at Seabright State Beach.
Lifeguards can’t afford to be tired; a long, cold swim to a victim through a heavy south swell demands a level of strength and endurance that can come only through hard work. Watch the video of Ryder making that rescue and consider the training he needed to do it.
There are towns up and down the coast that are better than Santa Cruz in basketball, pole vault and field hockey. Huntington Beach has great surfers; Santa Barbara has phenomenal water polo.
But right here at home, before the sun rises and your day begins, Santa Cruz youth are putting in the time and making the choices to be outstanding athletes in a sport you’ve never heard of.
They’re doing it to ensure that when the moment comes, they’re ready to protect their neighbors.
Dan Ackerstein is the team manager for Westcliff Surf Lifesaving Club.
Santa Cruz County athletes competing in South Africa this winter
Natalie Allen, California State Lifeguard & Aptos High School: swim, run-swim-run, swim rescue, pool rescue
Isla Cooper, Santa Cruz City Lifeguard & Santa Cruz High School: surfski, board, Ironwoman, pool rescue
Caetano Dawson, Santa Cruz City Lifeguard & Santa Cruz High School: board, flags, sprint
Nico Van Der Meer, Santa Cruz City Lifeguard & Santa Cruz High School: swim, run-swim-run, swim rescue, pool rescue
Joining the team in Japan in 2027
Drake Harper, Santa Cruz City Lifeguard & Santa Cruz High School: board, surfski, run-swim-run, pool rescue
Zoe Pochet, Santa Cruz City Lifeguard & Santa Cruz High School: board, surfski, Ironwoman, pool rescue
To support the Santa Cruz County athletes’ travel and racing, make a contribution to their fundraising efforts here. For more information, contact Westcliff Surf Lifesaving Club Coach Sae Ackerstein (saehanasurf@gmail.com).
