The exhilaration of surfing is always there.
Excitement pulses through his veins as he anticipates the next wave.
The world disappears as Joey Biasotto uses his mind’s surfing radar and IQ to catch the next wave that he will skillfully ride toward shore.
In nearly every session, there’s some sort of excitement, whether it’s the chance to try something new or because the onrushing waves are massive.
“I get a rush when I see a good wave and I’m in a position to catch it,” said the 17-year-old student-athlete who splits the year between residing in Ocean View and in Isabela, Puerto Rico. “When the waves are triple overhead, with 15- to 18-foot faces, the whole session is an adrenaline rush.”
Biasotto (pronounced “bee-ah-sah-tow”) admits that paddling out to where the waves break is somewhat frightening, because it takes considerable exertion and concentration, and he never completely knows what to expect.
“Once I’m out there and watching the waves come through, I know I’ll be catching one, so that’s always nerve-wracking,” admitted Biasotto, who surfs locally at the North Side Inlet, Bethany Beach and Ocean City, Md. “Then I have to paddle into position so that I can catch one of those monsters.”
By then, Biasotto realizes that he’s fully committed to catching a large wave.
“Seeing a set, or a large wave, approaching gives me an instant jolt of adrenaline,” the 5-foot-8 student-athlete noted. “Paddling for the wave is the scariest part — because when I’m lying down on my board, the wave looks so much bigger. At this point, I can’t back down, because I’ll get caught by the next wave. But standing up and making the drop is pure bliss. I don’t have anything else on my mind at that moment. I’m just trying to ride this wave as well as I can. After a wave like that, I always come out of it with a smile from cheek to cheek.”
Smiling for surfing success
Joey Biasotto has been doing a lot of smiling recently.
At the 2022 International Surfing Association Junior World Games in El Salvador, he recorded the highest heat total — 18.55 of a possible 20 — for the entire 16-and-under age group. He also has earned a spot on the Puerto Rico Junior National Surfing team in 2022 and 2023, and made the All-Star surfing team for the Eastern Surfing Association.
“My father, Larry, started pushing me into the waves when I was just a toddler in Puerto Rico and in Delaware,” said Biasotto. “Until I was 12 years old, I would only surf a few times a year. I didn’t like it very much. Then, in the summer of 2017, in Delaware, I randomly started surfing again, but this time without any help to catch waves. I really fell in love with the sport when we returned to Puerto Rico from January through May.”
Biasotto will be surfing competitively again in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, during the Thanksgiving holiday, at the International Surfing Association world championships. The competition, which is the equivalent of the Junior Olympics, was set to begin on Thursday, Nov. 23, and will continue through the following Sunday, Dec. 3.
“Our team has been concentrating on logistics,” said Biasotto, who has been training in Puerto Rico with his father during the past six weeks. “We are trying our best to compete as a team. It’s been hard getting all of the details sorted. But everyone is working very hard and doing an amazing job.”
East Coast surfing differs from Puerto Rico
Surfing on the East Coast of the United States is drastically different from riding waves in Puerto Rico, according to Biasotto.
“Mainly, the waves are much smaller at the Delaware and Maryland shores, and the waves break over a sand bottom,” said Biasotto, whose family owns and operates six White Glove carwash and detail service locations in three states, including Delaware locations in Newark and Wilmington. “Most of the waves in Puerto Rico break over the reefs.”
Biasotto said the sand-bottom breaks of surf spots on the East Coast tend to flow much faster and steeper than the reef breaks in Puerto Rico.
“Even though the waves here aren’t as big as they are in Puerto Rico, they are more difficult to perform on. So, surfing here is actually great practice, because I am challenged differently than I am in Puerto Rico.”
In addition, Biasotto noted, many of the professional and amateur surfing contests locally consist of mostly smaller sand-bottom waves that help him gain experience with that type of surf.
“The waves here are not user-friendly, so I tell my friends that if you can surf in Delaware and Maryland, you can surf anywhere,” he added.
A change of plans
For as long as Joey Biasotto can remember, the Biasotto family has split the year between residing in Delaware and in Isabela, Puerto Rico. Locally, they live off Cedar Neck Road in Ocean View.
Every January, the Biasotto family has relocated south to manage their rental-property business in Isabela — a town located in the northwestern region of the island, north of San Sebastián, west of Quebradillas and east of Aguadilla and Moca.
“We returned to Delaware each May,” said Margie Biasotto, Joey’s mother. “We call ourselves ‘Delaricans.’ We make up between 30 and 70 percent of the population in Isabela, Puerto Rico.”
Joey Biasotto attended Lord Baltimore Elementary School and was an eighth-grader at Selbyville Middle School in the fall of 2019, according to his mother.
“The plan was for him to attend Indian River High School beginning in 2020,” she said. “We had just relocated to Puerto Rico in January. When COVID-19 hit that March of 2020, we realized that there would no longer be a football or a wrestling program at the school for some time. Joey was a quarterback in football, and he probably would’ve pursued that role at the high school level.”
Under normal circumstances, Joey Biasotto would currently be a senior at Indian River High School. He would probably be playing on the Indians’ playoff football squad and looking forward to wrestling during the winter sports season.
But because there was no way of knowing if or when it would be safe to return to Delaware, the decision was made the summer of 2020 to enroll Joey in an online education curriculum.
“At that point, the football team at Indian River High wasn’t having summer practice or workouts,” said Margie Biasotto. “We just weren’t sure what was going to happen with the season, so we enrolled him in the rigorous, challenging Enlightium online curriculum.”
Joey Biasotto, who recently submitted his National Honor Society application through Enlightium, admitted that he misses those who would be his classmates, teammates and friends in Delaware.
Fortunately, he has developed an appreciation for his online education.
“Whenever my friends in Delaware return to school, I’m thankful for the opportunity to complete this type of curriculum,” said Biasotto, who is in his fourth year of completing the self-paced Enlightium curriculum. “It gives me the freedom to work ahead of schedule if I want. The only due dates for assignments are at the end of the semester.
“I normally spend two hours a day doing schoolwork to stay on track, but I also work four hours a day when it’s required,” he added. “I love this form of school because I still learn a lot and I can do everything on my own time. I do have teachers for all of my classes, but the school’s goal is for the students to be self-sufficient, so I only contact them if I’m struggling with something.”
Biasotto enthusiastically accepts the twists and turns that his life’s journey has taken.
“If I were attending Indian River High, I would’ve never had the chance to fall in love with competitive surfing,” he admitted. “I would’ve had an entirely different life, in terms of passions and relationships. I am very grateful for the way God has been guiding my life.
“With that being said, I loved playing football at Selbyville Middle School and in the American Youth Football League,” Biasotto quickly added. “My dad helped coach me in football, and I loved it. But COVID-19 made the decision for me.”
Thanking those who have supported and helped him
Biasotto is quick to credit and thank several individuals for their support of his surfing achievements. He has dubbed his parents his “first and best sponsors.” He also appreciates the love and encouragement from his older siblings — brother Reece, 36, and sisters Alexi, 34, and Ramsey, 32.
“I also have been helped considerably by Josie Graves,” Biasotto said. “I wouldn’t be at my current level of surfing without his help. Josie is my coach and friend in Puerto Rico. I started doing sessions with him more than two years ago. I’ve never met anyone with coaching abilities like his. He’s been a great role model, and has made a huge influence on my surfing and my life.”
Graves’ mother, Barbie Graves, also sponsored Biasotto as a sales representative for the surf-wax company SexWax.
“She took me onto their team before I had any real achievements in surfing,” said Biasotto. “She believed in me and saw my potential. I’m very grateful for her support.”
In addition, Craig Cronin also has helped Biasotto by skillfully shaping his surfboards. And Raúl Hernández in Puerto Rico has also invested in the teen’s career.
“Raul has always been a surfer whom I’ve looked up to, and he has always been very encouraging,” said Biasotto. “He owns a vegan energy-snack company, Power Cookies, that he makes by hand.”
Biasotto’s future appears bright, and his dream is to make a living riding the waves.
“There are generally two types of surfers who earn money in a surfing career,” he said. “The ‘free surfers’ get paid to travel around the world and make ‘surf movies,’ which are montages of the surfers’ best performances. In addition, there are also ‘competitive surfers’ who earn their living by competing at the highest level.”