Huntington Beach High students dance at Hurley's Walk the Walk fashion show competition at the U.S. Open of Surfing's concert stage. (Don Leach) |
The crowd of 5,000 teenagers fist pumped along with the music Friday afternoon as students from Huntington Beach High School strutted their stuff on a stage set up on the beach during the U.S. Open of Surfing.
The sounds of the waves were inaudible through the screaming of students and a mash-up of music as Huntington Beach took its turn to show its could "walk the walk."
"When the orange and black takes over, there is no one that can stop it," said Nolan Biegel, 16.
HBHS competed in Hurley's fourth annual Walk the Walk, a national competition that pits six high schools against one another for a five-minute "Project Runway"-esque competition for a $25,000 grand prize.
Huntington didn't take home the grand prize, which went to neighboring Corona del Mar High School, but they still had a great time, students said.
"It was one of the best feeling I've ever had because we were doing it for our school," said Nick Phipps, 17.
This is the third year Huntington has competed in the competition, but this is the first year it was open to all high school nationally. The students have been working for months making videos to qualify through three rounds of video challenges to make it to the final fashion show competition.
"We've been working so hard this whole summer, but it was so worth it," said Kim Wichner, 17.
The students created more than 30 outfits from deconstructed Hurley apparel and choreographed flips, lifts and lots of booty shaking. The final show was the best the students had ever performed, students said.
Lauren Stuhr, 18, a recent graduate of HBHS, was in the crowd cheering on her school. The performances were much better than last year, and Huntington stepped up its game, she said.
"There were a lot of good teams," Stuhr said. "They were right up there."
The show told the story of what the teenagers want out of life before they get too old, a kind of young person' bucket list, with their clothes and performance. The show was broken up into six sections: "I Want to Be Famous," "Just Dance," "I Want to Make the Team," "I Want to Be a Legend"—inspired by hometown hero Brett Simpson, who won the U.S. Open last year—and "Winning the Walk the Walk Competition."
Kim said she was "bummed" they didn't win, but the experience was so amazing it didn't matter.
As the students left the competition, they were preparing to go hang out with the students from the competing high schools.
"We made a lot of friends," said Blake Wetzel, 16.
