Colors from the bright lights cut through the darkness of the night as boats display their adornments for the annual King Harbor Holiday Boat Parade. With music, dancing and all the glow they can get, the boats’ owners are trying to win one of the event trophies in music and dancing, vessel size and sail power. 

“It’s pretty neat, a lot of people put up lights on their boats and travel back and forth across the harbor. Some go crazy with the lights and decorations, it’s really cool seeing what everyone comes up with,” sophomore Alden Snyder said.

A member of the King Harbor Youth Foundation for the past three years, Snyder involved himself with the decoration of three of this year’s boats for the parade. Being a part of the Youth Foundation involves various activities including learning-to-sail classes and competitive racing. 

“They do a lot of stuff over the summer, like teaching to sail small boats, bigger boats, and giving others a try at adventure sailing,” Snyder said. “As of right now, I do Flying Junior racing, which is the type of boat that we sail. We get to go out and do all these races across California, it can be anywhere from Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, all the way to San Francisco.” 

For the past two years, Snyder has been racing at the high school level. Redondo currently does not have a sailing team, however, they do have a shared sailing club with Mira Costa and South High School, where students can receive independent P.E. credit for their time sailing with the joint teams. 

“If more people were to join we’d be able to hire coaches specifically for Redondo practices. Everything is mostly just planning, still, we’ve definitely seen the most growth in the team this year,” Snyder said. “There’s been some push about people emailing and making changes so that sailing can become an official sport here in Redondo.” 

According to Snyder, sailing isn’t something that came from family interests. Based purely on his personal involvement in the sport, he took the initiative to participate in classes from the foundation.

“I heard my friends had done the classes and I was curious so I signed up. That’s when I got to learn about sailing, as well as getting to meet the people involved, like coaches and those who are a part of the sailing community,” Snyder said.

Also involved in the sailing club, freshman Dylhan Bajaj is a recent addition to the team. He has taken an interest in sailing and has been a helping hand in the decoration of boats for the King Harbor Holiday Boat Parade.

“I got into it this year, I’m still fairly new at it. Because of some of the connections I have, I got invited to be a part of the parade. I have done camps during the summer, just for fun, but this is the first year that I’m (competitively) racing with the team,” Bajaj said.

The team practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. With a partner and a small sailboat, they practice executing the skills needed to race against other schools.

“Sailing has given me more love for life because it’s kind of crazy that I get to go on a sailboat in the evening and spend time with friends, learning new things. Sometimes we take it for granted, but we’re lucky to be living here and to have the resources to try these kinds of things out.”