Calvin Cerrone: Kona Pre-Teen Bodyboarder Making Waves

By Denise Laitinen

Calvin Cerrone is not your typical pre-teen. While most 12-year-old boys are glued to video game consoles, Calvin has been winning bodyboarding competitions around the state and racking up sponsors faster than you can say “barrel roll.” As if that weren’t enough, Custom X, a leading maker of bodyboards, created a new bodyboard specifically for kids his age, and Calvin is the featured rider on the board’s packaging.

Calvin and his family moved to Hawai‘i Island from Arkansas when he was five years old, and live on a coffee farm in Holualoa. When he was six, Calvin started surfing, and according to his mother Amy Cerrone, has refused to ride anything else but his bodyboard for the last three years.

Bodyboarding is a family affair. His father, Mike Cerrone, is a professional surf photographer. Calvin, his older brother Ivy, and their father are in the water “whenever there are waves,” Calvin quips.

The articulate pre-teen says he prefers bodyboarding to surfing because, “You can surf heavier waves and you can do more stuff. You get bigger barrels on a bodyboard.”

A straight-A student at West Hawai‘i Explorations Academy, this seventh grader has had a busy year. Of the eight United States Bodyboarding Association (USBA) competitions he participated in this year, Calvin won or placed top three in half of them. And he took fourth place at the USBA Banyans event where he competed in the 18-and-over age bracket. He wrapped up the bodyboarding season, which runs February through August, with the title of 12-and-under Regional USBA Champion.

“We fulfilled our goals for this year,” says Calvin’s father with a smile. And Calvin’s parents aren’t the only ones proud of him.

Millers Surf and Sport in Kailua-Kona was the first to sponsor Calvin a couple years ago. Mark Waldo, the owner, says he takes a lot of factors into consideration before offering a sponsorship to a budding athlete.

“It’s very important to have really good character,” notes Waldo, who has been sponsoring local bodyboarders for the past eight years. “Because they are representing my company, I look for an individual who works hard and has a good disposition. It takes way more than talent to get sponsored, although Calvin has plenty of talent.”

“Calvin is an awesome, outgoing individual. He works hard at bodyboarding,” adds Waldo.

As Calvin progressed through the bodyboarding competition season earlier this year, other sponsors started knocking on his door. In April, after winning first place at USBA Kaua‘i, Calvin sent a video to Custom X Hawai‘i team manager and professional rider Jacob VanderVelde.

“[Jacob] helps me out a lot with everything I do, he’s really helped me with my career,” says Calvin. VanderVelde quickly signed Calvin, who became the first-ever 12-and-under bodyboarder to be signed by the California-based company. “I had an eye out for a young grom (kid) coming up in our sport,” says VanderVelde.

“Calvin was the perfect fit with his clutch style, positive attitude, and he’s a well-raised kid.”

“It’s nice to see younger riders taking up bodyboarding and especially at a high performance level,” says Debbie Colwell, founder and owner of Custom X. While a lot of bodyboards are geared toward teenagers, there are fewer options for younger kids Calvin’s age. “So we’ve designed an advanced board for groms,” adds Colwell.

With Calvin’s input, Custom X designed the XG—a light, hydrodynamic bodyboard. The board was released this past summer and is available on Hawai‘i Island at Millers Surf and Sport in Kailua-Kona.

“We’re stoked that he has lent his name to this project,” says Colwell.

Other sponsors have also jumped on board. Alpha Campaign, an O‘ahu-based clothing line recently added its name to Calvin’s sponsor list. In fact, the company expanded its product line to surf shops in West Hawai‘i because of its sponsorship of Calvin.

In addition to his current sponsors Custom X, Alpha Campaign, Ally Fins, and Millers Surf, Calvin’s father says additional sponsorships are also in the works.

His growing list of sponsorships is not surprising given that Calvin recently competed in his first pro bodyboard event on the mainland. In early September, Calvin and his mother traveled to Point Pleasant, New Jersey so he could compete in the 2012 Scion Jenks Pro, which is the USBA National Tour’s champion deciding event.

For Calvin, it was his first time competing outside of Hawai‘i and his first pro-competition. Held during a 10-day period, the actual competition only takes place for two-and-a-half days when wave conditions are right.

Similar to winter surf events on the north shore of O‘ahu, officials wait until waves reach certain heights and conditions before they give the go ahead for competition.

“A lot of different elements need to be right for the waves to break the best way possible,” explains Calvin. “All the competitors have to wait during the 10-day period for the right conditions.” If at the end of the 10-day period the conditions still aren’t right, event officials can opt to hold it in a different location or go for whatever waves they can get.

Fortunately for Calvin, there were good waves this year. He came in fifth place in the open amateur men’s division 18 years and older. Given that he isn’t old enough to be called a teenager, it was an impressive finish against a field of adult competitors. He also took second place competing in the 13-and-under category.

“I’m happy the way I competed and I really enjoyed surfing those waves.”

He also got an opportunity to meet several professional bodyboarders. “I got to hang out with a lot of professionals and hang out with my friends from other islands,” says Calvin, noting that several bodyboarders from across Hawai‘i attended the competition. “It was a pro-event, so the major names from all around the country were there,” adds his mother Amy.

“I definitely got some recognition and put myself out there for different people to realize what I can do,” says Calvin.

“He got a lot of praise because he was the littlest kid out there in the scariest waves,” adds Amy.

Calvin’s mother made sure the trip wasn’t spent entirely at the Jersey shore. She saw to it that he learned about history while visiting nearby Philadelphia and New York.

Since his return from New Jersey Calvin has his sights set on another goal: O‘ahu’s north shore. “Next year I’m going to do the Pipeline Pro Trials and hopefully get into the main event,” says Calvin.

He’s referring to the legendary surf spot known as Banzai Pipeline at ‘Ehukai Beach Park on O‘ahu’s north shore, famous worldwide for its dangerous waves in the wintertime. The International Bodyboarding Association (IBA) Pipe Challenge held next February is one of the top surfing competitions held at Pipeline and is one of eight events in the IBA Grand Slam Series for the undisputed World Championship of Bodyboarding.

“It’s a big deal for a kid my age to make it into the Pipe trials,” says Calvin.

“Here on Hawai‘i Island, I want to make sure I train as much as I can to mentally and physically prepare myself for this winter,” adds Calvin. “I’m also going to be practicing at Pipeline this winter.”

Calvin’s mother is well aware of the risk of a young person in large waves. “It gets really big and really dangerous at Pipeline,” notes Amy. However, she also knows that this is her son’s passion and something at which he has spent years practicing and honing his skills. Over the years she has also come to appreciate the close-knit bond of the bodyboarding community.

“I’ve become really comfortable with him in the water and I’ve come to understand that the bodyboarding community really looks out for everyone, especially the kids.” Still she admits,

“It’ll be terrifying if he’s out there in those conditions, yet I know he’s not alone.”

A goal as ambitious as competing at Pipeline doesn’t come without sacrifice however. Starting in January Calvin’s mother, who is a teacher at the same charter school Calvin attends, will start homeschooling her son because he will miss so much school during next year’s bodyboarding competition.

“I’ll have to take three weeks off for the Pipeline trials [because there’s a waiting period for that competition] and several weeks off for other competitions and it just wouldn’t work out,” explains Calvin.

“One of his teachers at his charter school recommended that he be homeschooled, pointing out that Calvin is a well-behaved straight A student,” explains Amy. “She said ‘This is his path, this is what he’s good at and this [homeschooling] is what he needs to do to make that happen.’”

Being a schoolteacher herself, Amy is confident she can homeschool Calvin during the upcoming bodyboarding competition season and help him maintain a sense of balance between school and sport.

For now, Calvin has his sights set on the ocean, not history books. “Right now I just want to make it into the Pipe contest,” he says. Given the wave of success Calvin experienced in 2012, there’s every reason to believe that 2013 will be even better for this Hawai‘i Island grom. ❖

---

Photos courtesy of Mike Cerrone Surf Photography

Contact writer Denise Laitinen: wahineokekai@yahoo.com