On the weekend of May 10-11 at the surf break called Church in San Clemente, the Western Surfing Association held its annual West Coast Championship.
Christian Arballo, a 16-year-old sophomore from Carlsbad High School, won two age-group divisions, becoming the 2008 WSA West Coast champion in the Men's and Boys Shortboard division and following up on the state title he won last year.
Heart defects haven't slowed Christian Arballo, a 16-year-old sophomore at Carlsbad High School who underwent two major surgeries during childhood.
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In San Diego, a county that continually produces some of the world's best surfers – surfers who go on to compete on the elite World Tour – news of regional amateur surf contests often goes unreported, overshadowed by bigger, more heavily sponsored professional events.
But Arballo's victories are remarkable for the fact that the local surfer is excelling despite major heart defects that threatened his life and have prompted two surgeries to repair valves.
To hear him tell it, though, it's no big deal.
“I don't think about it at all,” Arballo said. “It doesn't stop me from surfing or doing anything I want to do.”
Chris Arballo, Christian's father, paints the situation differently.
“They noticed it when he was 1, and he had to have two surgeries,” Chris Arballo said. “It was life-threatening surgery when he was 1. He had an open-chest surgery then and an open-heart surgery when he was 7.”
Arballo's heart defect is essentially an overgrown piece of skin that stops the blood flow. The surgeries have removed this abnormality, but he has to go in for annual ultrasound checkups that measure the overgrown skin. Perilously close to the heart's natural “pacemaker,” the surgeries carry a high risk, and there is still a chance that Arballo will have to endure more surgeries if the skin grows back.
When Arballo was in elementary school, as doctors were telling his parents to limit his physical activity, Make-A-Wish contacted him. Arballo's wish? To go to Hawaii to surf.
Since then, he hasn't stopped pursuing athletics, despite his medical condition. A natural athlete who has excelled in more traditional sports such as baseball and football, Arballo now focuses almost entirely on surfing. For a long time he competed as a longboarder and a shortboarder, which required him to double the number of heats that he surfed. Tiring for most teenagers, it is particularly demanding for a young man with a heart condition.
Still, Arballo said when he's in the water, it's the last thing on his mind. “It doesn't stop me from surfing as much as I want to at all,” he said.
At the amateur surf contests in which Arballo competes, there is a clear indication to his opponents that he has endured hardship.
“When he takes his shirt off, you'll see some of the other kids staring at his scar and reacting to it,” his father said.
Arballo, who presents an understated demeanor about the medical ordeal that he endured as a child, comments casually, “Yeah, it's about an eight-inch scar on my chest.”
In the water, though, Arballo shows no signs of being any different than the other talented, aspiring teenage pros in the lineup. He is taking his classes at Carlsbad High on an independent study basis, “so I can surf every day.”
Brad Melekian can be reached by e-mailing him at sports@uniontrib.com
