High Life: A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Waves of Talent : Mission Viejo Surfer Also Impresses With His Violin Playing

Four years ago, after an argument with his father, 14-year-old Branden Muresen left his house, taking the bus from San Juan Capistrano to San Clemente State Beach. He paddled his surfboard out during a lull in the sets and waited, but no waves were on the horizon.

Guilt, yes, but no waves.

A lone flying fish jumped out of the water a few feet from him, twisting its body midair and gleaming in the sun before splashing back into the sea. Then suddenly, even closer to his board, about 100 of these fish burst from the surface, an entire school floating in perfect arcs for an instant through the air.

God, Muresen said, had sent him a sign.

“I believe,” he said.

Since that day in the water, Muresen has been a member of the Mission San Juan Capistrano church, where he is a core team member in the youth ministry.

An amalgam of talents, Muresen, a senior at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, is mostly known for his surfing and violin playing.

There is something ironic about a teen-ager dressed in Billabong shorts and a Quiksilver brand shirt playing the violin.

His intensity belied his appearance. His lips were pursed in concentration, his eyes distant yet focused. He moved and leaned and bobbed to the rhythm. His fingers danced, the bow glided and beautiful sound was made.

“To make noise out of noiselessness is such a trip,” Muresen said. “A true virtuoso can make his violin sing.”

It is such singing that drew Muresen, then a 7-year-old third-grader, to the violin after he heard a piece by German composer Felix Mendelssohn.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “I’ll never forget it.”

Practicing three to four hours a day, Muresen and his violin became intimate friends. He speaks to it in that one-sided way reserved for inanimate objects.

“Me and my buddy have a good conversation every day,” he said. “ ‘You’re not going to mess up, right?’ I ask. ‘I won’t if you won’t.’ ”

After two years at Saddleback College, Muresen said he hopes to attend Eastman School of Music in New York. He credits a lot of his success to Merilee Walker, his private instructor for the past two years.

He has played in the Capistrano Valley orchestra for four years, and in early May received a “superior” rating--the highest possible--at a regional competition at USC.

Muresen rides waves like he plays classical music, or so it seems.

He surfs with subtle aggressiveness, with refined abandon, patterned in an intricate overlay of fluid moves across the wave’s face, syncopated with an occasional harsh move. When all the elements come together, it’s as complex and beautiful as a musical composition.

“I love the closeness to nature, the physical challenge, the feeling of freedom,” said Muresen, who has been surfing for five years. His highest placings in competition were back-to-back thirds at Calvary Chapel Surfing Assn. contests four years ago.

“The ocean gives you waves, and your life gives you feelings and emotions,” Muresen said. “It’s always important to ride the wave all the way to the end, to ride it to the fullest, because you never know which way it’s going to turn.

“Once that way is through, you always know you can kick out and paddle right back, and there’ll be another one waiting for you.”