Valley native cements surfing legacy at state finals

Aarin Hartwell, Rio Grande Valley native, owner of SPI Sessions and environmental education ambassador, couldn’t believe it when she nailed first place in two divisions at the Texas Gulf Surfing Association (TGSA) 2024-2025 State Championship Finals.

From spending her childhood on Boca Chica Beach, to touring the coast showcasing her skills, so much has led up to her recent domination in the Texas surf scene.

Hartwell says growing up she didn’t have the resources needed to grow her athletic talent to the best of her ability, but in adulthood, she conquered that challenge through a self-taught resourcefulness.

“I was like a diamond in the rough, but I was literally stuck in the rough,” she said. “It wasn’t until I was older and able to put myself in these other places that I realized that this could be part of my destiny”

GETTING SERIOUS

Hartwell grew up in Brownsville. Her father and grandfather built a beach house supported by stilts on Vermillion Road, near the airport where her family lived. She remembers how the airplanes would shake the home.

Her family often made the short 30-minute drive to Boca Chica Beach, where their mother would sometimes organize clean ups.

Hartwell’s mother was a school teacher who specialized in environmental studies, instilling a deep appreciation for the natural world into young Hartwell. Her mother’s influence cultivated a desire for conservation in Hartwell that she would carry with her into adulthood.

In her teaching years, Hartwell’s mother founded Gulf Guardians, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Padre Island through awareness workshops and hands-on practices. Hartwell followed in her mother’s footsteps, eventually taking over the organization to continue her legacy.

“Keeping the beaches clean goes far beyond just picking up trash. That’s why the environmental education my mother instilled in me is so important,” she said.

In her early teen years, Hartwell sparked a love affair with South Padre Island, where she began to dive into the world of surfing.

She was 14 the first time she ever caught a wave, going in with zero coaching. For the first few years, she struggled learning the ropes, but says in high school she really started to “connect the dots.” She’d often skip school and head to the Gulf instead, as she descended into the world of surf culture.

Then an art teacher at Hanna High School, Gaines Burnes, inspired young Hartwell with his affinity for surfing.

“Gaines used to come over to the journalism room, where I was always at, and tell me how good the surf was. I will never forget that because I thought it was so cool for a teacher to be so excited about the surf while we were all stuck at school,” she said.

Fast forward and Hartwell currently employs Burns at SPI Sessions, and they compete alongside each other on the SPI Surf Team.

After graduation, Hartwell attended a couple years of university at Texas State. She had secured a music scholarship playing the flute. For a sizable portion of her life, Hartwell’s dream was to play in a philharmonic, but, eventually, she left school, and returned to the Island amidst her parent’s divorce.

That’s when she says surfing got serious.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

At 25, Hartwell went back to school and graduated two years later with a degree in mass communication. Instead of embarking straight into a career, she picked up a sponsorship by Core Kiteboarding.

Core Kiteboarding sent Hartwell on an eight-month tour in a Mercedes sprinter van around the perimeter of the United States. She slept in the van, stashed between all of her equipment, every night.

After competing in the Oceanside Pro Nose Riding Competition, she picked up a slew of new sponsorships, including Guy Takayama, who started shaping her custom longboards.

Aarin Hartwell and her son pose with her trophies after she won big at the Texas Gulf Surfing Association (TGSA) 2024-2025 State Championship Finals in Corpus Christi. (Courtesy: Madelyn Ferris)

She says she grew up a lot on this tour and developed a sense of resourcefulness while learning the ropes of being a sponsored athlete. Some things were paid for, but a lot of it came from her pocket as well.

“A lot of times, athletes that advance very quickly in life, they have a foot forward or a leg up when their parents are able to afford the training they need,” she said. “I didn’t grow up with that.”

She returned to Texas after the Core tour brimming with confidence.

“It made me a better athlete,” she said. “It made me a better surfer.”

Years later, in 2016, Hartwell opened SPI Sessions, her water sports coaching business.

2025 STATE FINALS

The TGSA State Surfing Championship took place April 5 and 6 at Packery Channel in Corpus Christi.

Hartwell arrived in Corpus for the competition that Friday, well rested and eager to compete. All day Saturday, she watched her teammates compete in the surf in the rare “gorgeous blue water” of North Packery Channel.

“The conditions were like from the Gods,” she said.

After a competitor in Hartwell’s division failed to show, the semi-finals were turned into straight finals, bumping her from surfing that Saturday. Overnight, winds shifted, blowing at 40 mph and temperatures dropped as Hartwell, her son and her husband, slept in their new travel van.

“I woke up and I was like ‘Crap! I don’t want to surf in these conditions!’”

Hartwell arrived at South Packery Channel that morning before any of her competition, and got in her zone for the day by a free surf kiteboarding session, getting a taste of how the waves were going to treat her.

“I wasn’t able to drop into the waves because of the hard off-shore wind,” she said.

Eventually, she moved toward the inside and was able to catch some waves, which she utilized as her strategy for her heats.

The combination of the unfavorable surf conditions and her tough competition had Hartwell nervous. She found herself eight minutes into her heat, waveless.

“I said ‘I can’t do this! I’ve got to move on the inside and get a score on the board,’” she said.

Under the pressure of this being the state finals, she mentally coached herself, pushing herself to keep paddling. She took advantage of the waves she was able to catch by packing in as much technical cross stepping as she could to rack up the points, advancing herself in the competition.

Despite challenges, Hartwell came out on top, winning first place in the Women Division and the Women Longboard Division, with a score of 10.10 and 10.36, respectively. Having accumulated 4,360 points over a series of recent competitions, Hartwell is the Overall Points Champion of TGSA’s 2025-2026 season.

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