Point Loma Nazarene University students are being given an opportunity to show off their surfing skills and their videography skills. The Sunset Clips Classic is a six-week surfing video contest being hosted by Loma Outside. The contest will be judged on both best surfing and most entertaining video.
Brennan Ziegler, a third-year international development major, and Loma Outside’s president is the curator of the contest and was a major force in setting it up.
“The Sunset Clips Classic is a video and surfing themed competition,” Ziegler said.
Two to four PLNU students, both alumni and current students, are allowed to create a team in which they submit a 60-second video of their best surfing in a six-week period between February and March. The contest also includes mini-contests or challenges where students can send in videos of their worst wipeout or their best alternative for a surfboard.
The competition goes beyond surfing as well. Ziegler wanted to show off PLNU’s creativity.
“There’s a lot of creativity on this campus in terms of video, music, and artistic vision,” Ziegler said. “Creating an event where those things can come together is the vision.”
Ziegler added how the competition is not only for great surfers. He explained how it’s meant to be a competition where surfers of any skill level can show off their appreciation for the sport of surfing.
Second-year graphic design major Kaden Garrett is behind some of the graphic design of the competition and agreed that the competition is a great way to show PLNU’s creativity in a unique way. Garrett was able to contribute some of his artistic vision to the competition through graphic design
“We thought it’d be a super unique way to use all the creativity that we have just here at Point Loma,” Garrett said. “We have an alumni who’s shooting all the videos for the advertisement and I’m doing all the graphics.”
The main focus of both Ziegler and Garrett was the involvement of alumni within the contest. Garrett explained how they really wanted to unite current students with alumni by allowing anyone to submit clips. The panel of judges will also include four alumni. The competition is being run completely by PLNU students both past and present. Along with that, the competition will remain local. Students are only allowed to submit surfing clips from breaks at Sunset Cliffs to Ocean Beach.
Students are also looking forward to showing off their creativity through surfing and filmmaking. While first-year nursing major Jacob Le isn’t a media communication major, he is still interested in filmmaking through this competition.
“I like making films of my friends when we go on adventures and I like making home videos,” Le said.
Le is finding a creative outlet with the competition that he might not get if it weren’t for these types of events at PLNU. He is also finding lots of inspiration from surf films and surf filmmakers like the Endless Summer by Bruce Brown.
“It’s definitely giving me a creative outlet to make something fun and something that I would enjoy,” Le said.
Students are encouraged to send in multiple clips for their team but are only allowed to choose one to be judged. Judging is done by the panel of alumni only for the skill of surfing in the video. When it comes to the most entertaining that will be determined through an audience vote since it is more objective. The first submissions for the worst wipeout mini-contest are due Feb. 21. The Loma Outside website has details on how to register a team and more extensive rules.
To conclude the six-week competition there will be a premier event on Mar. 16, showing off all the clips of the teams that competed. Prizes include $250 and more to be announced as the six weeks go on.
Written By: Steve Anderson
