Cypress High School held its annual boat races on April 24, 2026. These races allow Green Tech and Physics students to show off what they’ve learned in class and apply it to compete against each other. Teams of students were tasked with making boats out of cardboard and duct tape with the goal of making it across the pool with people inside.
There was a wide variety of characters and themes for the boats, ranging from niche to well-known. Senior Serina Min’s boat theme was Despicable Me, and they dressed up as minions. “We were going to do Avatar, but we ran out of blue spray, so we just got yellow and made it minions,” Min said. Another student, senior Caralina Fernandez, dressed up as an ice cream scoop, with the theme of banana split, and they named their group “The Sundaes” after the band, The Sundays. Other familiar faces could be seen at the event, such as Ash Ketchum from Pokémon, Tony Tony Chopper from One Piece, and Nemo from Finding Nemo.
While some students used their time to the fullest, others seemed to spend more time thinking about their theme than their boat. The students who planned accordingly were more prepared in the races, while the others were more nervous.
Many students were successful in this competition. Tresta Jadoc and her team’s boat was able to complete the boat races without sinking. Their theme was Finding Nemo, and Jadoc’s team customized their boat by making it a turtle. She expresses how the boat races help the students help build communication and collaboration, especially since she was in an environment where she didn’t know much about the people she was working with. Before and during the race, Jadoc felt excitement for her teammates, mostly since she wasn’t going to be inside the boat. Although her team wasn’t able to finish first, Jadoc says, “I don’t really care about [winning], I was just thinking about if they were going to sink or not, and they didn’t.”
However, other students, like Junior Curtis Thurmond, didn’t have their boat hold up too well. Their theme was One Piece, and Thurmond dressed up as the character Sanji. Although Thurmond initially felt good about his boat, it ended up folding under the weight of six people. He thinks the reason why they didn’t hold up so well was that they didn’t use enough tape and heavy-duty cardboard to hold their weight. Although Thurmond’s boat wasn’t able to stay afloat, he still enjoyed the project and being able to build it. Thurmond says, “It’s just new to me, creating a vehicle from scratch.”
Many teachers came to show their support for the students. World history teacher Carissa Velasquez’s favorite part of attending this event every year is being able to view it as the unofficial kickoff to summer. She enjoys celebrating all the hard work that students and staff put into this event, Velasquez says, “Just seeing everybody smile and enjoy the day, that’s my favorite part.” Velasquez sees the boat races as a great project that can bring out the creativity and imagination of students, as well as their critical thinking skills, which are needed to design the boat.
Physics teacher, Justin Fournier, officiated this event and his favorite part of this project every year is seeing all the creativity that the students have with their boats. He also loves seeing efficient boats that use the minimum resources but are still able to stay afloat. Fournier says, “I always really admire efficient boats that use the minimum amount of things, but still can float, and the students are confident in that, that’s always impressive to me rather than being [decorated].” Fournier always looks forward to officiating the boat races every year, and this year he enjoyed watching the students have fun, but he also liked watching some of the boats sink. To Fournier, the boat races are an amazing way for students to help with building and actually applying the 5C’s to a real, physical scenario.
