Bend is nearly 200 miles and a four-hour drive from the Pacific Ocean, with two mountain ranges in between. So it does not stand to reason that a high school surfing team should be formed here.

But with a man-made surfing wave in the Deschutes River that flows through the middle of the town and plenty of interest, Bend actually became an ideal spot for a surfing squad.

“We live in the desert, so I didn’t have high expectations,” said Chip Conrad, the coach of the Summit High Surf Team. “But most of them rip on the ocean, they rip here, they are just skilled. They just understand this sport.”

Since moving to Bend four years ago, Conrad saw a bunch of kids slowly making progress on the waves at the Bend Whitewater Park near the Colorado Avenue Bridge. That gave the life-long surfer the idea of creating a surfing team for high schoolers.

His plan was to bring aspects of traditional high school sports to a not-so-traditional sport.

“I thought one of the coolest things about high school sports is the travel and the camaraderie, building friends and seeing new sights,” Conrad said. “I thought it would be cool to give these guys an opportunity to do that with the sport of surfing.”

For two years he was asking around to gauge the prospects of starting a surf team. Bend-La Pine Schools was on board with the team being formed, so too was the Bend Park and Recreation District and the City of Bend. And there was interest from the high schoolers who would go on to make up Central Oregon’s first surf team.

“I saw posters around school and was interested right away,” said Zari de Brun, an incoming senior at Summit, during a practice session on Friday at the Bend Whitewater Park. “We had our first meeting, more people joined and it became what it is today.”

“My friends joined, and I thought, ‘Why not?’” said Kellin Struhs, an incoming junior who had been surfing at the Bend Whitewater Park for five years. “I surf all the time and thought it would be a fun experience.”

And just like that, the surf club was formed. So far, only Summit has a team, but Conrad said that Bend High will have a squad this upcoming season.

Right now, in its first year, Summit Surf is a co-ed team of 10 members. They traveled to Chelan, Washington, for a competition in March in which the Storm secured a first-place finish in the women’s division and a third-place finish in the men’s division.

“It was fun, the Chelan kids were a lot of fun,” said Struhs, who competed in Chelan. “The competition was very fun. It was an all-inclusive competition, a lot of it was to go out, have fun and surf.”

Surfing, especially at the Bend Whitewater Park, can be somewhat individualized. Only one surfer is on the wave at a time. But adding the team aspect has helped the surfers to improve and be more daring to try new maneuvers on the wave.

“When we are down here, the vibes are more fun,” said incoming Summit freshman Delcan Skuse during Friday’s session. “I feel like I’m working harder and learning new tricks each day.”

On Aug. 17, the Summit Surf Team will host the Grom Con Surfing Contest, held at the Bend Whitewater Park.