Local surf prodigy Robbie Goodwin drops in on the pro-surfing scene.
Fourteen-year-old summer resident Robbie Goodwin caught the biggest wave of his young career recently when he was selected to join the US Surfing National Junior team. At 5’3” and a hundred pounds soaking wet, this East Coast ripper grabbed the eye of Olympic coach Joey Buran, who handpicked Goodwin for his lineup of surfers at the close of the USA Junior Championships at Lower Trestles, a famous surf spot in California, this past June.
A Cape Cod native, Goodwin’s surf odyssey began on Nantucket at the tender age of five when his father began pushing him into waves at Cisco Beach. By the age of seven, Robbie Goodwin was paddling into the lineup on his own. He broke into the pro-surfing scene in 2016 when he won the U-12 nationals in Salt Creek, California, scoring a perfect ten on one of his rides. Rip Curl and J7 surfboards quickly took notice and offered him sponsorships. A wave of success began to build.
More recently, Goodwin competed in a three-day training event in Cocoa Beach, Florida held by Coach Buran. Offshore winds and barreling waves gave him perfect conditions to put his surfing prowess on full display. “His smooth style and power rail game surfing looked years beyond his age,” Buran gushed about the youngster. “Out of the forty-two surfers I viewed at training sessions, Robbie was tops.”
Beyond flaunting his skills on the West Coast, Goodwin might now be able to compete on the world stage. According to Greg Cruse, the CEA of USA Surfing, Goodwin and his fellow teammates show “great promise not just for the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo but also 2024 Games in Paris and 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
In the meantime, when he’s not traveling to exotic surf sports, Goodwin can still be found paddling into the lineup at Cisco. No doubt Goodwin will be dropping in on some seriously sized waves in the years to come, delivering perfect ten rides and leaving competitors quivering in his wake. But no matter how far he goes, when asked where his favorite place to surf is, this unassuming kid will sage: “Where else? Nantucket.”
