Kelly Trying to Find Success Riding His Wave of Emotion

Many consider Bali to be one of the most exotic places on earth, but for Hagan Kelly, it’s where he and his brother watched their mother die.

Kelly, 18, has been named one of surfing’s hot up-and-comers by Surfer and Surfing magazines, and while he appreciates the accolades, his foremost desire is for his accomplishments to become a legacy to his mother’s memory.

“My mother [Kathy] was very supportive of me and my brother,” Kelly said. “And considering that we weren’t exactly rich, she still managed to take us to places like Bali to surf. I miss her very much.”

Kelly was 11 when he and his brother, Forest, then 8, were surfing a break in Bali. For the brothers, it was a dream come true . . . until their mother suffered a heart attack on the beach.

“It was very traumatic,” Kelly said. “We were both there, and we tried to do all we could, but there was nothing we could do.”

Three years earlier, their father, Patrick, died from a heart condition.

“When my mother died, my brother and I didn’t know what we would do,” Kelly said. “We had no parents. It was very scary for both of us.”

Kelly’s grandparents, Gary and Joanne Kelly, immediately came forward and took in the brothers, moving them from Hawaii to Redondo Beach in 1990.

Kelly, who grew up in Hawaii, learned to surf at age 8 on the North Shore. Though he had a great affection for the sport before his mother’s death, it grew in importance afterward.

“I can’t tell you how much surfing saved me,” he said. “After my mom died, there was this huge void. My grandparents are great. They have been very supportive of my surfing, but sometimes things got a little crazy, and I had to go out and surf. When you’re sitting on your surfboard all by yourself, you can do a lot of thinking.”

After moving to Redondo Beach, Kelly, with the help of his uncles, started to compete in surfing contests, improving each time out.

Kelly, who graduated in June from South Torrance High, won four overall titles in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. Southwest Division. He also was selected to the NSSA National Team four consecutive years.

He has won 58 contests in his six years of surfing as an amateur, including three titles in the U.S. Surfing Federation’s West Coast Championships. In 1995, he was named among Surfing magazine’s best 30 amateur surfers in America, and Surfer magazine named him one of the top 100 amateurs in the world.

Kelly is looking forward to his pro career, which started when he turned 18, and to the Clarion U.S. Open, which begins Monday in Huntington Beach.

“I’d be stoked if I could surf against Tom Curren,” Kelly said. “He’s been my idol ever since I started. But even if I don’t, just to get a chance to watch him surf would be great.”

Kelly is determined to make it as a pro.

“Hagan is really enthusiastic about his career,” said Alisa Cairns, events manager for U.S. Surfing. “He’s come up through the system and he’s doing pretty good. He had a strong amateur career and he’s now starting to build his confidence up as a pro. I think in the next few years he’ll start coming in with some good results.”

In the meantime, Kelly wants to keep plugging ahead, hoping for that day he’ll make the World Tour.

“This is what my mother would want me to be doing,” Kelly said. “But she’s with me whenever I surf. Just thinking of her makes me want to do better. I’m doing this for me and her.”

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Kelly Slater will return to defend his title at the U.S. Open next week in Huntington Beach, where 38 of the top professional surfers in the world will gather. Also scheduled to compete are Sunny Garcia, winner of last weekend’s Katin Challenge in Huntington Beach, Kalani Robb, Rob Machado and Lisa Andersen. Andersen, the top women’s surfer in the world, will compete in both men’s and women’s divisions, according to her agent, Mike Kingsbury.

Last week, rumors were flying that Shane Beschen would not surf at the U.S. Open. Beschen, who has moved from San Clemente to Hawaii, surfed in the Katin Challenge, and stories circulated on the beach that he would catch a flight home the next day.

This raised questions about whether Beschen was still upset about last year’s U.S. Open final, where Slater beat him on a controversial judges’ ruling. According to those close to Beschen, he’s forgotten all about it.

And according to Cairns, Beschen will participate in the U.S. Open.

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Though the U.S. Open is not classified as a World Champion Tour event, that doesn’t mean the surfing will be mediocre. It could be tenacious.

Not only is the prize money more than $150,000, but there also will be current WCT surfers, including Machado, trying to earn points to stay qualified for the World Tour. Also, some former WCT surfers, including Jeff Deffenbaugh and Marty Thomas, will be trying to requalify for the tour.

Also look for Curren, from Santa Barbara, to continue to test the comeback waters. He finished third in the Katin Challenge.

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The Bud Light Pro Beach Volleyball League will stop at Huntington Beach Aug. 16 and 17. The tour features four-player teams in both men’s and women’s divisions with the finals scheduled for 12:30 (men) and 2 p.m. (women) Sunday.

Among the players scheduled to play are Scott Fortune (Laguna Beach High and Stanford), Kim Oden (Irvine High and Stanford) and Gabrielle Reece (Florida State).

Notes

Former Laguna Beach High and USC standout Adam Johnson teamed with Karch Kiraly to win the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament last weekend in Hermosa Beach. The AVP tour moves to Sacramento this weekend. . . . The Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. stops in Long Island, N.Y., this weekend for the Evian Invitational. The Evian National Championships, one of the tour’s major events, will follow at Hermosa Beach, Aug. 8-10. . . . Hermosa Beach will also host the Cuervo Gold Championship Aug. 23-24. The first and second-place finishers in the men’s and women’s gold division qualify for the Cuervo Gold Tour National Finals, Oct. 25-26. Some winners of the national finals have moved on to the AVP and Jon Child and Mark Heese, who won a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, won the Cuervo Gold National title in 1995.