One wouldn’t be wrong to say Kanoa Igarashi was born to surf. In fact, Igarashi’s parents Tsutomu (Tom) and Misa moved from Japan to Southern California when they learned Misa was pregnant with Kanoa, wanting to give their first-born son such a chance. Both Tom and Misa surfed in Japan, but Southern California offered more opportunity for a budding professional surfer, so they moved to Santa Monica initially. When Igarashi was 6, they moved to Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City. Made sense. There are hundreds of kids in California who compete year-round in surfing contests sanctioned by a variety of organizations, the most notable being the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA). The competition is fierce, young surfers—“groms”—as young as 7 and 8, with parents in tow, making their way onto beaches up and down the California coast and competing for trophies and local, regional, and even national titles. …