As the weather turns cold and people begin avoiding the beach, Katie Draeger’s surf season is just getting started. For the last several years, from September through December, Draeger has competed in Western Surfing Association competitions.
The Nipomo resident is already sponsored by Esteem Surf Company, and ranks in the top 10 for the Western Surfing association. She’s hoping to get her name out there next season and line up some bigger sponsors.
“I always want to stay with Esteem because they’re local and I love them, but if I could add on Rip Curl or Roxy, that would be ideal,” she said.
“Mainly, I want to have my trips paid for,” she added with a grin.
Draeger has already surfed Costa Rica, Baja, and mainland Mexico, and she sees lining up sponsors and going pro as her best way to see even more of the world’s surf spots.
So in her travels, what’s been the biggest wave she’s surfed?
“Well, it’s kind of relative,” she said. “Because I’m only 5-foot-5, a 6-foot wave seems way bigger than 6 foot to me. All my friends say to me: ‘Is it Katie-chest high or regular-chest high?”
She paused and thought for a minute.
“I’d say the highest was a 10-foot wave,” she decided. “It definitely felt like a 20-foot wave, though.”
And don’t think Draeger is a one-trick surfer, either. The 16-year-old has brains to go along with that talent: She carries a 3.7 GPA and takes most of her classes at Hancock.
There’s dedication to your sport, and then there’s dedication to your sport: “I got up to go surfing the other morning and I had to scrape ice off of my wetsuit,” she said.
—Nicholas Walter
This article appears in Dec 11-18, 2008.