Griffin Colapinto and Caitlin Simmers will compete in the World Surf League (WSL) championships in the San Clemente area during the next several weeks, giving California a fantastic opportunity to produce its first domestic world surfing champion in almost thirty years.
After a dominating year on the nine-stop professional world tour, where she secured top seeding ahead of 2023 champion and gold medallist Caroline Marks at the Paris Olympics, Simmers enters the one-day, winner-take-all competition.
In just her second year on the circuit, the 18-year-old from Oceanside, which is less than 30 kilometers from the Lower Trestles site, became a sensation by winning three races, including the historic Pipeline in Hawaii.
San Clemente’s Colapinto, who placed second in the 2023 finals behind Hawaii’s John John Florence, will be the second seed for the men’s division.
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With a win in the most recent tournament in Fiji under his belt and no nagging hip issue from a year ago, the 26-year-old will likely never have a better opportunity to win the championship than at his home break.
While Florida-raised Marks and Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, the winners of 2022 and 2023, have both relocated to San Clemente, California hasn’t produced a world champion since Tom Curren’s third victory in 1990.
“Clearly, Caty has a chance, and from that exact location, just 30 minutes away in Oceanside, it would be enormous,” stated Mitchell Salazar, a pundit and former world-class surfer.
It would be really significant if both Californians triumphed. If Griffin and Caitlin did, it would be extremely symbolic. Furthermore, given that this is the final championships held in this location for the time being until they move to Fiji the next year, it would be extremely significant.
Finals Day is scheduled for September 6–14, depending of the weather, with mostly modest waves expected in the southern California center of high-performance surfing.
With Simmers and Florence clearly in the lead, the format pits the fifth and fourth seeds against one another, with the winner playing the third seed and so on until a best-of-three matchup with the first seed.
Brazil has won seven of the previous ten men’s world championships, dominating the competition in recent years.
However, with three-time winner Gabriel Medina missing the last five and Toledo taking a year off for his mental health, their only chance is fifth-ranked Italo Ferreira.
Australia hopes to see silver medallist Jack Robinson or last year’s runner-up Ethan Ewing in the men’s division, while their lone competitor in the women’s final is fourth-seeded Molly Picklum.
