Asked if her son, Chase, had begun surfing in the womb, Lourdes Lieder said almost. He was, she said, a year and a half old when she and her husband — and Chase’s grandfather too — pushed him out into the ocean on a tethered board with a life vest on.
Now 16, the East Hampton High School junior won Explorer and (for the second year in a row) open longboard national championships at Huntington Beach in California in November, and followed up with a second at the Justin Quintal Loggerhead Classic in Jacksonville, Fla., earlier this month.
Chloe Coleman, a classmate and fellow Montauker, competed in Jacksonville too, placing third in the pro women’s longboard category. “She should have been second,” Lieder said as Chase, Chloe, and Chloe’s 18-year-old brother, Tucker, were interviewed Saturday — a rather dismal day otherwise — at the Lieders’ MTK Surf Shop near the Circle, a shop that stays open the year round. Tucker, a student at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., made a semifinal round at Jacksonville, missing the finals “by a fraction.”
Chase, the winner of many Rell Sunn events here, and Chloe won prize money at the invitation-only Quintal contest — he $1,000 and she $600 — further sparking their professional world tour ambitions. It was her first pro event. Chase said the ages between 17 and 20 were crucial when it comes to competing professionally in the surfing world.
Lieder and her son had surfed earlier that day. Tucker said he would have had he not had to finish an art project for school. In general, the trio surf here year round, as does Chase’s 15-year-old sister, Morgan. “We’ve got hoods, boots, and gloves on now,” said Chloe, who also is a top-notch field hockey player, surfing being her chief love, however.
He was drawn to longboards’ versatility, Chase said. “You can surf in ankle-high or chest-to-head-high waves with them . . . in any size wave.”
When asked about the West Coast’s waves, Tucker said, “They have more pulse and power.”
“Yeah, but it’s not that they’re better . . . just different,” said Chloe, who switched from shortboarding to longboarding a year ago. On a screen opposite the counter a video of the three of them and other national contestants riding waves in between competitive rounds was playing. “You can dance on longboards,” her mother said as Chloe, the water curling under her, could be seen walking forward to the tip of hers and then back.
“Don’t forget to say they’re looking for sponsorship, for travel money and entry fees,” she said. “Hurley gives him clothes and wetsuits, which helps, but he needs more.”
Chase has already traveled as far as Noosa, Australia, for a World Surf League contest “in February 2020, just before Covid hit. I made one heat, but it was a good experience.” And in June, he and Chloe surfed in the Mexi Log Fest at Punta Burros, near Sayulita in
the Mexican state of Nayarit. They plan to return there this summer. Their sights are also set on Nazare, Portugal, Mavericks in Northern California, and the Pipeline in Hawaii in the future.
Asked what she loved about surfing, Chloe said, “Being at peace in the heart of everything . . . it makes me feel free, I guess.” Chase agreed. “Oh,” he said, looking up at the video, “I got clobbered on that one.”
To reach the sport’s highest level, this newest wave of Montauk surfers — a group that includes a part-time resident, Noah Avallone, who won an East Coast longboarding under-14 championship in September, will have to work hard and will have to produce noteworthy results, but, said Lourdes Lieder, naming other East Coast surfers who have gone before them, it’s definitely possible.