Braeden Kopec of Ponce Inlet recently returned from Huntington Beach, California where he competed in the NSSA National Surfing Championships and he brought two national titles home with him! His trip to California brings his total overall number of Championship event wins to twenty-one. Prior to the Huntington event Braeden competed in the Interscholastic National Championships held at Salt Creek Beach where, as team captain, he helped lead his team to a third place finish out of 14 high school teams from the east and west coasts of the United States.
Braeden holds nineteen east coast titles, ten of which are NSSA Championship wins, including a record “three-peat” in the premier Open Men division, winning the division three consecutive years. He is known to be a fierce competitor who is confident and aware when it comes to heat management. Even when the heat timer clock isn’t on his side he can manufacture the needed score in the waning moments of a 20 minute heat. His competition success and polished and mature surfing was noticed early by the USA Surfing Team coaches who named him to the USA Junior National Team a record five years in a row.
A few months ago, Braeden’s participation in the national championship events were looking unlikely. In early February Braeden was feeling significant pain and instability in his knee leading him to surf gently and refrain from pushing his surfing 100% when doing maneuvers. At two of the last three USA Surfing Prime events, which were held back to back weekends in New Smyrna and his home break of Ponce Inlet, Braeden found himself in increasing pain and a knee that wouldn’t support pressure being applied to it. In an attempt to complete the contest a neighbor loaned him a brace in the middle of the event but after the next heat Braeden realized something significant had occurred in the knee. A few days later the MRI revealed a torn ACL causing him to withdraw from the final stop in North Carolina as well as pull out of out of three World Surf League (WSL) stops in Barbados, one of his favorite Qualifying Series tour events, Florida and California in March and April. The ACL doesn’t heal itself and is only repaired by surgery which can potentially remove an athlete from competition for a year. In younger athletes the alternative to surgery is to strengthen the knee and leg to a point where the ACL isn’t strained.
Braeden had his eyes focused on his childhood dream that he had once written down as part of his training … “win a national championship”. Through a daily regimen of intense physical therapy and out of water training over two and half months Braeden was able to strengthen the leg to a point where the orthopedic surgeon felt comfortable allowing Breaden to make the decision to return to competition. Braeden decided to test the knee a day before the NSSA East Coast Championships at New Smyrna Beach. He ultimately decided to give it a go and compete. He surfed carefully in each heat attempting to protect the knee from further damage and he ultimately made the finals in two divisions and won the event’s Airshow Division Title. He would spend the next several weeks continuing the intense rehabilitation process before heading off to California at the end of May where he’d be for 5 weeks of training with his coaches and testing what the knee could handle. Although timid at first Braeden began to push harder in the days leading up to the national events to see how the leg would feel under the pressure of competitive surfing.
With the knee supported by a brace, Braeden hit the water when the horn blew signifying the start of the first competitive heat at Salt Creek for the Interscholastic national event. A little over a week later would be the beginning the eight-day national event at Huntington Beach. The knee seemed to be holding up and all of the physical therapy and strength training was paying off. Braeden surfed 16 heats over the event’s eight days, winning half of those heats and advancing through all of them except one, making three of the four finals in his divisions, ultimately winning two of the divisions and missing a fourth final by only three tenths of a point. He placed third in the National Airshow Championships where surfers take to the air, launching themselves into rotations above the wave, landing, and cleanly riding out of the maneuver. In the opening moments of the air show final Braeden posted a score of an 8 (out of a possible 10) putting pressure on the other finalists in a tough “go big” situation.
Each year the NSSA National Championship at Huntington Beach event started on Braeden’s birthday and on this year’s opening day he achieved the highest score of the day, a score in the excellent range, posting a 9 (out of possible 10). He’d go on to post numerous scores in the excellent range throughout the event. In the Men’s division Braeden went perfect, winning every one of his elimination round heats and ultimately winning the final as well.
In addition to his success in NSSA Championship events Braeden has won several event stops on the Rip Curl Grom Search tour over the years, qualifying for that series’ national championship multiple times. He also holds several ESA regional and east coast championship titles. He was the first USA Surfing Prime series competitor to qualify for both the east coast and west coast USA Prime series which provided opportunities to compete at famed surf breaks such as Steamer Lane in northern California.
Braeden first learned to surf at Matanzas Inlet just a few months before turning three years old. The next summer at three and half he was in the “push-in” division at a local contest in St. Augustine. Since then he has competitively surfed a few hundred heats in his amateur career. He recently began his professional competitive surfing campaign to ultimately qualify for the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour. Through a series of Junior Qualifying Series events (JQS) and Qualifying Series (QS) events Braeden has competed in Barbados, Dominican Republic, and throughout California. Braeden has trained and prepared himself over the years in South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
One of his other goals he wrote down as a kid was to “make the world tour”. With the knee and national titles in the rearview mirror Braeden understands the importance of a back-up plan more than ever and will be attending college in a few weeks while still competing professionally over the next four years. He has been accepted into Stetson University’s Honors Program and selected as a Presidential Fellow of the university. Of course, Stetson happens to be just a quick 40 minutes from the waves, and they have a surf club too! But before he sits down in that first freshman business class in mid August he’s enjoying a search for great waves 8,500 miles from Ponce Inlet. He has been surfing and training in South Africa for the last three weeks at the famous Jeffrey’s Bay (“J-Bay”) and other locations near Durban.
Braeden is sponsored by O’Neill clothing & wetsuits, Channel Islands Surfboards, Monster Energy, FCS, Nixon, Sticky Bumps and Stance.
To follow Braeden’s journey: @braedenkopec