Australian Sally Fitzgibbons once again faced a young San Clemente surfer in the finals of the Lexus US Open of Surfing – but this year, it was the veteran surfer’s turn to take the win.
Last year, Fitzgibbons came in second to local surfer Sawyer Lindblad, but this year Fitzgibbons was able to nab the title after winning against San Clemente’s Bella Kenworthy in an action-packed final on Sunday, Aug. 11, in Huntington Beach.
It is the second time Fitzgibbons, 30, has won the event, 13 years following her first title in 2011. The win also comes on the heels of her induction into the nearby Surfing Walk of Fame just days earlier.
“It’s just a very special place for me, a very special wave,” Fitzgibbons said, noting that she was about Kenworthy’s age, 17, when she won her first title. “It just feels so special. I just love this so much, looking out at the pier and all the people cheering and supporting me, thank you so much.”
In the men’s final, it was a history-making moment as Alan Cleland Jr. became the first surfer from Mexico to win the US Open of Surfing after he faced French surfer Marco Mignot, who also has strong roots in Mexico, raised in the surf town of Sayulita. Cleland was just back from competing at the Olympics.
“To just be representing my flag and all the people who supported me,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
The US Open of Surfing, a nine-day event that kicked off on Aug. 3, wrapped up with crowds filling in the sand of the 13-acre festival area. Throughout the day, beachgoers gathered around the Hurley stage to listen to live music and the 14-foot skate vert ramp drew a big crowd as X Games competitors put on a show.
Fans kept cool under a wave of umbrellas on the beach as they soaked in the surf action, others opting for an up-close view of the action from above on the pier.
Throughout finals day, competitors faced a drop in surf size from the previous few days, testing surfers’ patience through the morning as they waited for waves with long lulls between sets.
The women kicked off the action during their quarterfinal heats, where a Southern California showdown ensued when Kenworthy matched up against Encinitas surfer Alyssa Spencer.
Kenworthy took an early lead by posting up a 7.67 and backed that up with a 6-point ride, putting Spencer on the defensive as she hunted for waves.
Kenworthy kept busy taking wave after wave, Spencer not earning a score until 10 minutes passed in the heat. When a wave did finally show for her, it wasn’t enough to match her opponent.
Two San Clemente surfers were still in the running heading into the men’s quarterfinals, with last year’s runner-up and World Tour surfer Crosby Colapinto facing Cleland.
The ocean went flat forcing a restart after the five-minute mark of no waves. The clock ticked down again, another restart looming, but with just seconds left before the decision, Cleland found a wave to put a score on the board and get the heat started.
Cleland stayed busy, posting several scores, while Colapinto waited for the right wave. There was only about 10 minutes left when he found a rideable wave, punting upward and throwing his fins in the sky, landing it and making his way to the inside for a turn that would earn him a score of 7.67.
But Cleland answered back with his own big air, flexing his arms as he landed, earning a 7.57. Colapinto was left waiting for waves to back up his score.
With the ocean turning off, Colapinto was eliminated. The two surfers hugged in the water, high fiving as the heat came to an end.
Cleland called it a crazy heat, where he compared it to playing a game of chess.
“You had to think of what move you would have to make,” he said, calling Colapinto a “gnarly” competitor.
“I knew I had to play smart and kind of relax, and go with the flow,” he said. “It’s finals day, you have to be on your game.”
World Tour veteran Kolohe Andino, a San Clemente surfer hoping to regain his spot on tour, was the lone local surfer left in the men’s draw as the quarterfinals came to a close.
Andino was surfing spicy in his heat against Australia’s Jackson Bunch, the local surfer posting an early 5.67 and backing it up with a 6.33 just minutes after the heat started, making the best of the small waves by hacking his way to the inside toward shore.
Andino maintained the lead throughout the 25-minute heat, but in the final seconds Bunch took a game-changing wave, flying above the wave to turn the heat and eliminate Andino.
Kenworthy in the semifinals matched against Australia’s Bronte Macaulay, the San Clemente surfer getting the better of a paddle battle for the first wave, hacking her way to the inside for an early score of 5.83. She ended the heat with a big 7.5 to secure her spot into the finals.
“I’m lucky I’ve grown up here, I’ve been surfing here so long,” Kenworthy said. “I’m happy to carry my momentum.”
Cleland’s win over Australia’s Jarvis Earle earned him a spot in the final. Cleland said he was trusting himself heading into the heat, relying on his breathwork and meditation to head into the heat relaxed.
Mignot’s semifinal win was earned on a small wave in the dying seconds of his heat, taking to the air to earn a 7.5, just half a point more than he needed to overtake Bunch.
“It’s go big or go home,” Mignot said. “So I went big.”
In the women’s final, Kenworthy took an early lead against her opponent, but it wasn’t long until Fitzgibbons, who spent 15 years on the elite World Tour before falling off in recent years, built up her score.
Both Fitzgibbons and Kenworthy are in a strong position to qualify for next year’s World Tour based on their strong finish, now sitting first and second in the Challenger Series rankings.
In the men’s final, Mignot took an early lead and never let Cleland catch up – except when there were just three seconds left on the clock, creating an exciting end for the finals, the crowd erupting in a cheer as Cleland finished his wave.
The men sat in the water, waiting for the score, Cleland needing a 6.6 – and when the score dropped, it was a 6.7.
Cleland paddled back out and hugged his competitor, who he grew up surfing with in Mexico.
“I had to salute him, he’s such a great surfer,” he said.
Each winner earned a trophy created from recycled materials from the End Cafe restaurant, once at the end of the Huntington Beach pier but destroyed in an El Nino storm in 1983.
The World Surf League acquired materials from the former owners, the Gustafson Family, and commissioned artist Andeaux Borunda, who grew up in Huntington Beach, to create the trophy.
