Before he even entered elementary school, Wilbraham & Monson Academy's Tyler Grodsky '22 knew how he wanted to spend his summers.
"I grew up sitting on the beach watching all these amazing surfers thinking I wanted to do that," Tyler explained. "One day I convinced my parents to let me take a surf lesson and it took off from there."
For many years, Tyler just surfed for fun, finding the beaches where the waves were good for surfing on Nantucket Island. In the Summer of 2017, though, a group of his friends planned to compete at the Nantucket Ozone Surf Classic. He signed up for the charity event and placed second in the Junior Division (13-and-under).
"I was just surfing for fun," Tyler said. "I wasn't trying to win; I was just messing around. I wasn't trying to get a certain score. I was just out there to surf and got second place. I was super surprised."
There weren't any official competitions on Nantucket this summer, but a five-day stay in Costa Rica had him participating in what people in surfing circles call beach competitions – informal events hosted and judged by lifeguards.
"I won four of the five days," he said. "I was a little more experience than some of the surfers but it was a lot of fun."
Tyler plans to compete in the 2019 Ozone event on Nantucket.