Surfers from around the world showed up for the first day of competition Wednesday at the US Open of Surfing’s Challenger Series event in Huntington Beach, drawing a mix of veteran surfers, up-and-coming competitors and newly-minted Olympians who traveled to Surf City straight from the Summer Games.
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Waves were in the 2- to 3-foot range to kick off the event, with tropical storm energy potentially bringing better size sets for the event by Friday. The Challenger Series, the pathway to the elite World Tour, earns surfers valuable points toward next year’s qualification, not to mention the prestigious US Open of Surfing title.
The action started off with the men’s draw, with the top two surfers in each heat advancing to the next round and the other two surfers eliminated from the event.
South Africa’s Luke Thompson called his heat “nerve wracking,” going up against two good friends in his draw.
“It’s quite tough when you have to surf against them, but you have to get the job done,” said Thompson, who won his heat.
The men’s action ended with San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino taking the second spot in his heat to stay in the competition.
Now 30, Andino is a veteran pro surfer who fell off the World Tour in recent years. His goal is to get back onto the elite tour and the US Open of Surfing could help with that, an event where he’s posted strong results in past years.
“I’m stoked to be here again, another year, and I’m old enough now to have a little perspective and enjoy it and surf with that attitude,” he said. “A win would be great, I’ve had a strange three or four years. I’m just stoked to make some heats and get back on track where I think my surfing belongs.”
His goal, he said, is to get back on big stage for a few more years.
“I still feel like I have a lot left on the waves,” he said. “I think a big part of it is my mental state, I’m just trying to come in here excited.”
Huntington Beach is a special place for Andino, where his pro career started when he got a wildcard into the big event when he was just a teenager.
Joining Andino in the next round on Thursday are several San Clemente surfers he has helped mentor through the years, including World Tour surfers Cole Houshmand and Crosby Colapinto, as well as Kade Matson and Jett Schilling, who are hoping to join the ranks of the world’s best.
“It’s super inspiring to be able to surf with them every day and say, ‘That’s the level’,” Andino said. “It’s just been crazy, all the guys who are just winning a lot of events and heats.”
Houshmand and Matson will be facing each other in the next round, and Andino will go up against Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi, who is gunning for his third US Open of Surfing title. Igarashi was just competing for Team Japan in the Olympics.
Olympic gold medalist and Tahitian surfer Kauli Vaast was scheduled to compete, but withdrew from the event to go to the closing ceremonies in Paris, organizers said.
The women’s action also got underway on Wednesday, drawing several surfers who recently competed for their countries during their Olympics in Tahiti.
South African surfer Sarah Baum called the Olympic experience “crazy,” saying she went into it without expectations and wanted to just take in the whole experience.
“I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of the effort I put in,” she said.
Coming to Huntington Beach, she’s also soaking it all in.
“I’ve been coming here for so many years, I love this place,” she said. “The energy is just so wild, you always get some fun waves and I’m stoked to be here.”
San Diego surfer Sierra Kerr, 17, was also taking in the scene. She remembers coming to the event when she was a kid to watch her dad, Josh Kerr, a former World Tour competitor, and a few years ago she entered the skate contest.
But the surf contest was a first for the Carlsbad surfer, and it took a while for her to get her groove in the water, the ocean not producing many waves to work with during the first half of her heat.
“I knew it was probably going to be grindy – but then I got out there and it was a lot worse than I thought it was going to be, which isn’t what you want when you go out into the heat,” she said. “It was pretty hard, but I’m happy to get through and hopefully it gets better through the week.”
San Clemente’s Kirra Pinkerton was also stoked to make it through the first round. She hasn’t had the best results at past events, but a strong finish this year could help in her goal to get to the major leagues.
“This year, I’m going in with a better mindset,” she said.
When the women’s event resumes, she’ll face fellow San Clemente surfer Sawyer Lindblad, the winner of last year’s event, who will be defending her title.
In the festival area, the crowds trickled in through the day. One of the big draws in the early-morning hours was a Shiseido Blue Project beach cleanup with celebrity guest Nina Dobrev, star of the “Vampire Diaries” who came straight from the Paris Olympics where she and boyfriend Olympic gold medal snowboarder Shaun White joined friends competing in the Summer Games.
Dobrev talked about her love for the ocean and environment, which started with a fear of sharks – until she faced that fear by doing a shark dive, learning the ocean creature doesn’t actually want to eat humans.
That fascination with sharks led to learning about how much microplastics are in the ocean.
“We need to be more conscious of what we do and our impact,” she said.
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