It’s always a beautiful morning for Poway High surfer

Nick Holdman says he is not a morning person. But even on the coldest days of winter the soon-to-be senior at Poway High will wake up at 4:30 a.m., slip on his shoes and drive 30 minutes to catch some waves.

“I like to leave super early — by 5 a.m.,” said the 17-year-old Holdman, who has surfed in nearly 200 competitions over the past five years and is sponsored by several companies, including Catch Surf, Tuttle Surfboards, Head Hunter Sunscreen, Right Eyewear and Wax Trak. “It is usually super glassy and there is no wind at that time. It is great for surfing.”

After a few hours of riding the waves, Holdman returns home to take care of any chores that involve his life outside of the water. Then its back to the beach — often Seaside Reef in Cardiff — for an afternoon surf session. This is often his schedule seven days per week, except during the school year.

“I still practice seven days a week during the school year, though,” Holdman said. “I cannot surf before school because I don’t have time, but after school I throw my stuff in the car and head to the beach and surf for an hour. That is pretty much every day. If there is any kind of wave, I am usually out there.”

Holdman’s passion and work ethic has brought him several trophies and accolades. He recently took seventh at the Scholastic Surf Series Championships, which pits the top high-school-aged surfers in California against each other at Churches Beach in San Clemente. He was No. 1 in the San Diego Division.

Holdman captured the Tamarack Beach Classic Open Division title in Carlsbad on June 20. Surfing in two circuits — The Western Surfing Association and the National Scholastic Surfing Association — keeps Holdman busy just about every weekend.

“I usually have at least one contest every weekend,” he said.

Nick’s dad, Rob Holdman, is a 1983 graduate of Poway High. He competed on the Pro Surfing Association of America circuit while growing up in Poway.

“It wasn’t too lucrative,” said Rob, who still is an avid surfer. “It was for a couple years and there was about 12 contests and the first-place prize was about $1,200.”

Rob wasn’t interested in talking too much about his past, though. He was more excited about Nick’s success.

“It’s not about me,” Rob said. “It’s about Nick. He is an amazing kid. I am not a bragger, but he knows what to do in every competition. He knows how to surf and how to get the points.”

Despite Rob being into surfing his whole life, Nick did not pick up the sport until a later age.

“I played ice hockey until I was 12,” Nick said. “But I was just too small and I kept getting beat up. I had four concussions and broke my arm. I realized I had to do something else and that was the perfect time for me to start surfing.”

Nick learned at a surf camp, Walking on Water, at Churches Beach. It was there that his love for surfing blossomed and it wasn’t long until he was competing. But things did not go how he expected at first.

“I remember my first contest,” Nick said. “It was in Encinitas and I thought I would do super well and I thought it would be super easy. And then I took dead last. Then it totally hit me. After I saw how good the other kids surfing were compared to how I was surfing, I realized I had to put in a lot more work and gain experience.”

Nick surfed nearly every day. His parents drove him to the beach, watched him surf and then drove him back home. He would then do his homework, mostly because without good grades there was no surfing. Nick carries a 3.67 GPA.

“That is the only reason my parents let me go to the beach so often,” explained Nick, “because my grades are good.”

It took about a year of finishing in dead last before Nick made a final for the first time. It was in a National Scholastic Association competition at Mission Beach and he ended up taking fifth place.

“I was just so happy to make the final,” he said. “I didn’t even care how I surfed in the final once I made it. I just knew that I was going to get a trophy.”

He has over 40 trophies and around 10 first-place finishes now. But even with all the success, he continues to strive for his ultimate goal of traveling the world as a professional surfer.

One of his favorite pros is Mick Fanning, who was in the news this past weekend for fighting off a shark during a surfing competition in South Africa.

“I read a lot of surfing books and I learned from his to make a schedule,” Nick said. “Each day I work on a certain trick or maneuver and then by the end of the week I try to put it all together.”

Still, even with all the practice, it does take a little bit of luck to win a surfing competition.

“I can be super prepared and focused, but it depends on my relationship with the ocean and what waves I get,” Nick said. “There have been times I had 30 seconds left and I needed a score and the ocean just goes flat.”

Nick is hoping to surf for and attend college at Point Loma Nazarene in the future. But for now he is enjoying his early mornings at the beach and the cool gear he gets from his sponsors.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Nick said. “You go out to the beach in the morning and then come home and you have a box of stuff waiting for you.”

That’s worth waking up early for.