On Jan. 15 Chris Waring 22-year old professional surfer and fourth generation Seal Beach local won the prestigious Katin Pro-Am Team Challenge.
It was held on the North Side of Huntington Beach pier.
Chris is the son of Seal Beach locals Scott and Shannon Waring and the grandson of Denny Buell.
Denny and his brother Sam Buell are part of surfing’s rich history in Seal Beach that included Robert August, Mike and Jack Haley and Rich Chew.
All of the Buell brothers Doug, Sam and Denny are deceased but would have been proud of Chris accomplishments. Uncle Sam was honored with a plaque on Huntington Beach’s Surfing Walk of Fame in front of Jack’s Surfboards in HB as part of the infamous boys of 55 surf club in 2008.
At the same time Sam was receiving the plaque posthumously Chris surfed his way to a 5th place finish at the US Open of Surfing just across the street.
Chris was raised in Seal Beach attending McGaugh School and Oak Middle School. He graduated from Huntington Beach High School in 2005 where he was the captain of the Huntington Beach High School Surf Team.
That same year Chris won the California High School State Championships as well as three division titles in the National Scholastic Surf Association. Chris has been traveling since he was 14 and been around the world seven times since.
His travels have taken him to Australia, Tasmania, Africa, Indonesia, Maldives, Figi, Mexico, Hawaii, Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and all over Europe. He is currently competing in Brazil and spent part of last year filming for Reef’s new surf movie coming out this year.
Chris was destined to win a major event in California, with a second place finish at the O’Neill Coldwater Classic in Santa Cruz and a fifth at the US Open of Surfing in 2008. It seemed only a matter of time.
“I’m honored to win the Katin, now I’ll be on that list with all the great surfers who have won this event in the past,” he said.
The list is a who’s who of surfing champions including 9 time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, 3 time world champ Tom Curren, Sunny Garcia and Shaun Tomson.
In the action packed final held in 4 to 6 foot surf that included Chris, Huntington Beach’s Brad Ettinger and Ventura’s Nathaniel Curran the surfers traded off huge scores getting tubed and pulling huge aeriel maneuvers just missing the famous Huntington Beach pier pilings.
Fans were screaming from the pier and the beach crowd cheered after every wave, while fans from around the world were chiming in on the live webcast. “It was exciting” Chris said.
The event had an individual winner and a team winner.
The winning team was Reef and included Chris, Nick Rozsa, Gabe Garcia and Sean Maceron. Last years champs Hurley came in second and Surfline finished third.
For more information on Chris Waring’s surfing career, send e-mails to:
shannon.waring@gmail.com.
