Heritage Surf Shop has added Mikey to their Shop Team. Read the full story on the Heritage blog.

Heritage is proud to welcome Mike Ciaramella to the Heritage Family. Mike C is one of the most talented groms under 21 in NJ and we are stoked to bring him into a surf family that’s been in the biz for 50 years. With a solid list of results, a growing presence at the NJ Grudge Match, and expeirience in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, Grommet is ON FIRE and setting up to make big impact in the surfing world! Check out the clips below from Home and Hawaii, and follow this link to his Youtube Channel. Stay tuned for more from Mikey!

Click here to check out Rusty Surfboards team rider, Mikey Ciaramella, in the "Sequence of the Week" on Surfline.com.

NAME: Mikey Ciaramella
AGE: 17
HOME: Stone Harbor, NJ
SCHOOL: Middle Township High School
SPONSORS: Rusty, Reef, Electric, Xcel, Freestyle, Dakine, Futures Fins, 7th Street Surf Shop

Don’t know if you’ve seen or heard, but the East Coast has been cooking lately. From Florida to Maine, it’s been an offshore playground, and Mikey Ciaramella has been taking full advantage.

“The waves have been really fun for the past month or so,” Mikey says. “Two weekends ago I got some of the best waves I’ve ever gotten on the East Coast.”

All that extra water time paid off this weekend when Mikey won the NSSA Northeast Conference High School Championships in Ocean City, New Jersey.

“I came up on the boardwalk and saw some really fun, head-high barrels,” Mikey says. “As soon as I saw that, I knew it was going to be a sick day.”

A sick day, indeed. Competing against the best high school surfers in New York and New Jersey, Mikey owned the day. He won every one of the five heats he surfed — a big accomplishment for the high school (real high school, not home school) junior.

“I was really excited about the contest because the last two years I made the finals but wasn’t able to pull off a win,” Mikey says. “It was pretty important to me to win because a lot of the best Jersey pros of today, guys like Matt Keenan and Rob Kelly, have won this contest. I feel like it’s a good result for my career.”

—Taylor Paul/Surfing Magazine

Video by Alex DePhillipo

NSSA Nationals is a great time to be a grom...

What better way to amp up for a heat than a little Black Sabbath on Guitar Hero?  What better way to rejuvenate after an exhausting paddle battle than an extra large shaved ice and fresh BBQ fish tacos?  What beats a post heat massage?

The Rusty Groms got to enjoy the V.I.P. treatment.  Jake Halstead, Keto Burns, Tayler Brothers, Mikey Ciarmella, Corey Howell, and Ian Garcia climbed the ranks of the NSSA to earn a spot in the coveted Nationals competition for a chance to duke it out with the next crop of (soon to be) World Title contenders...

Tayler Brothers

Photos: Brody

Amongst the elite crowd of up and coming surfers are Rusty's very own Corey Howell, Mikey Ciarmella, Ian Garcia, and Tayler Brothers. Although, the surf was a bit inconsistent, the sets provided for clean rippable walls and the groms went off!  Ian Garcia was a stand out, taking first place in his heat!

The Playground: Trestles

Ian Garcia working it all the way to the beach...

Ian Garcia winning the heat

Mikey Ciarmella

Corey Howell

Join Us for the Rest of the Nationals Contest and Come Show Your Support for the Rusty Groms!

All Photos: Brody

Although the morning's glassy conditions were eventually chopped up by a southerly afternoon breeze, hundreds of surfers competed in 23 divisions for a chance to surf in the NSSA National Championships in June in California.

"I was a little worried about waves on my way here," said NSSA Executive Director Janice Aragon, who drove a truck and trailer full of scaffolding and equipment from California last week. "So I couldn't believe Friday was the day this swell arrived. And once the wind died this morning, it was so clean. You don't see Sebastian Inlet like this very often."
Those glassy conditions gave contestants from Florida to Maine the opportunity to showcase their skills over four days.

Click here for the full photo gallery of the event!

Explorer Boys
1. Cam Richards
2. Pat Schmidt
3. Corey Howell
4. Noah Schweizer
5. Sam Duggan
6. Knox Harris

Explorer Juniors
1. Balaram Stack
2. Evan Thompson
3. Frank Roper
4. Fisher Heverly
5. Tayler Brothers
6. Peter Polanski

Explorer Men
1. Nick Rupp
2. Balaram Stack
3. Tayler Brothers
4. Frank Roper
5. Cole Richards
6. Kedren Ferrero

Open Juniors
1. Evan Geiselman
2. Mikey Ciaramella
3. Dylan Kowalski
4. Cam Richards

Mikey shreds his home town in New jersey first fall swell this year ...

Mikey Ciaramella's home made surf clip....right coast.