Wipeout! Grace Steinmer (‘25) fell off her board, but a smile remained on her face. On Saturday, August 24, the 31st annual Luau & Legends of Surfing Invitational welcomed a team of Bishop’s students and alumni — Grace, Sydney Hagan (‘25), Maile Gaardner (‘19), and Helena Roseman (‘21) — along with Bishop’s parent and surfing legend Jon Roseman (Helena ‘21). Neither Grace nor Sydney are experienced surfers, but they both enjoyed the event knowing its purpose was to raise money for cancer research.

The Bishop’s surfers were one of the 16 teams who competed in the surfing portion of the daylong event at La Jolla Shores by Scripps Pier. Another well known team was the Cancer Thrivers — made up entirely of cancer survivors.

The event also included a lunch at Scripps Seaside Forum and a party at Belly Up with an auction and live music by Pine Mountain Logs. In its three decades, the event has raised over $11 million for “leading edge research” at the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, according to the website. 

The teams, made of four surfers and one surfing legend, were split into five heats, each lasting 30 minutes. The Bishop’s surfers competed at 7:30 a.m. in the first heat. The team from each heat with the highest score advanced to the semi final round, and the two highest scoring teams competed in the finals. 

Surfers on the UC San Diego Women’s team, CEO of UC San Diego Health Patty Maysent, and surfing legend Buzzy Kerbox won the competition. 

But winning was not the focus of most surfers.

“There is no pressure to win or anything like that. It’s all for a great cause,” Mr. Roseman said. “It’s like a big giant family. It’s really cool like that.”

Helena, who has been surfing in the event since 2018, and led the auction which raised over $90,000 last year, said the “shared camaraderie” between everyone in the event made it feel different from other surfing competitions. 

“Cancer is something that affects us all and the ocean is something that we all grow up with in San Diego and it is cool to use something that we love to combat something that affects the things we love,” Helena reflected. 

Unlike Helena, Sydney and Grace were surfing for the first time in the event. Sydney’s dad invited her to the event, and the invitation was extended to Grace. Sydney explained that while she is not “the greatest surfer,” she wanted to help spread awareness and raise money for cancer research.   

As for Grace, she explained that, “My mom’s best friend and one of our close family friends just died from cancer…I think it is really important that we spread awareness and raise money for it.”

While at Bishop’s, Maile and Helena were both captains of the surf team and reflected positively on their time competing with the team.  

“In my time, the team was small and mighty. It was a super fun time,” said Maile. “A lot of early mornings with sleep-deprived teenagers surfing.”

The Bishop’s surfers had the opportunity to compete alongside many amazing surfers and teams, most notably the Cancer Thrivers. 

One of the Cancer Thrivers was Izzy Tihanyi, co-owner of Surf Diva Surf School in La Jolla Shores, who recently finished a year of treatment for ovarian cancer at the Moores Cancer Center. After sponsoring the event for years, her personal experience with cancer inspired her to compete this year. Ms. Tihanyi described surfing in the event as “very emotional”, after all she had overcome.  

“My whole theme today has been ‘don’t call it a comeback’’ Ms. Tihanyi said. “I was never gone, I am here.”

Another Cancer Thriver was Landy Spencer-Daly, who founded her own wetsuit brand, Landy Wetsuits, in 2018. 

“I was invited to surf on the Cancer Thrivers team last year because I had breast cancer five years ago and I was just honored to participate,” Ms. Spencer-Daly began. “Everyone is collectively really happy to be here because everyone knows they are here for a bigger cause that affects either themselves or someone they know.” 

Surfing is not the only way to be involved in the event. For anyone at Bishop’s interested in getting involved next year, Helena encouraged people to reach out to UC San Diego Health or the Scripps Luau website to volunteer, donate, or participate. As Ms. Spencer-Daly concluded, the event is “an opportunity to be in the water with some really great people.”