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Whether it is from an inverted corkscrew-like position high above the surf at the Vans U.S. Open in Huntington Beach, Calif., or looking at the World Surf League rankings here at home, Seth Moniz is relishing the view these days. Read more

Whether it is from an inverted corkscrew-like position high above the surf at the Vans U.S. Open in Huntington Beach, Calif., or looking at the World Surf League rankings here at home, Seth Moniz is relishing the view these days.

“I’m almost in disbelief how this year has gone so far,” Moniz said.

In a week in which he turned 21, the youngest member of a well-known surf family also finds himself hovering over the prospect of earning a much-coveted spot on the WSL Championship Tour in 2019.

That was something the numbers hardly portended last year when he shared 87th place in the WSL’s Qualifying Series, miles from a top-10 finish needed to gain entry to the Championship Tour.

But in the last few months, his stock, like his board, has taken remarkable flight in an ascent that has won him a following as a newcomer to watch.

His father, Tony, was a well-known surfer in the 1980s; a sister, Kelia, is a two-time world Women’s World Longboard champion; and a brother, Josh, won the Volcom Pipe Pro in February.

“I basically grew up in the surf,” said Seth, whose parents, Tony and Tammy, own the Faith Surf School in Waikiki, where he’d help out. But it wasn’t until he was in his teens, Seth said, that he came to thrive on competition and devote himself to trying to carve out his own career in pro surfing.

It was Josh’s triumph that helped light a fire under Seth. “When he won, that really got me pumped up,” said Seth.

Time spent polishing his aerials at the BSR Surf Resort artificial wave pool in Waco, Texas, in May and the tutelage of coach Rainos Hayes began paying off over three top-five finishes in the past three months. “It seems like after that my whole career has been skyrocketing,” Moniz said.

The eye-opener was a 9.87 score coming off a backside air rotation at Huntington Beach in what Moniz characterizes as “the craziest waves I’ve ever had in competition. I was going to go for a full rotation, but I sort of mistimed it and kicked my board out a little too hard. When it separated from my feet, I thought I lost it.”

Moniz said, “I was looking down when I was in mid-air and I was like, ‘Oh, there is no way I’m going to connect. But, as I was coming down, I had one last chance to make it and competing against the best, I knew I needed to go for it and just went for the Hail Mary. Sometimes, when you land like that, the white water pushes you off of it. But, and I don’t know how, somehow everything just came together on that one.”

When Moniz remarkably emerged from the white water still on the board, it was to a thunderous roar of the throng on shore.

“I can’t put into words how amazing that was,” said Carissa Moore, a three-time world champion who watched it with her family. “Watching it, we were freaking out. It should have been (scored) a ‘10.’”

Moniz said “the (crowd) was pretty bummed when they announced (the score) and it wasn’t a ‘10.’ But I was still pretty happy.”

He lost to eventual champion Kanoa Igarashi of Japan but gained enough points to take the No. 1 spot in the qualifying series rankings.

“Basically,” Moniz said, “that was huge. That made my year.”

And what a year it has become.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.