Kanoa Igarashi, ranked No. 3 in the world, happy to be back home for U.S. Open of Surfing

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

Kanoa Igarashi might have a little trouble recognizing the competition when the Huntington Beach resident paddles out on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier throughout next week during the U.S. Open of Surfing.
Over the past six months, Igarashi has been laser-focused on surfing on the World Surf League's Championship Tour (CT) in an effort to win a world championship.
Currently ranked No. 3 in the world, Igarashi will be the only surfer still with a chance to win a world title competing in the Open, which begins Saturday and runs through Sunday, Aug. 3, when the men's and women's winners will be crowned. All the other men's division athletes still in the hunt for a world championship have chosen not to compete and instead focus on the CT contest that begins Aug. 7 in Tahiti.
That includes Igarashi's longtime rival Griffin Colapinto of San Clemente, the 2021 U.S. Open winner who is currently ranked No. 6 in the world. The Tahiti event is the final contest of the CT's 11-event regular season, with the top five in the season's point standings qualifying for the championship finals in Fiji during the final week of August.
Igarashi admitted that skipping the Open to focus on Tahiti and securing a spot in the finals did cross his mind, but it was never a serious consideration.
'I definitely thought about it, but at the end of the day, whether or not I'm in the U.S. Open, I'm just doing my daily routine,' he said. 'As long as I can get to Tahiti a few days in advance, and get rid of the jet lag, I'll be fine.
'I'd be surfing Huntington every single day anyway, so surfing in the U.S. Open doesn't tire me out, thankfully. And I get to spend time with my friends, spend time at home, I'm sleeping in my bed, and I'm only driving three minutes to the pier. I feel like I'm recovering for Tahiti while competing in the U.S. Open. I feel like if it was going to tire me out or distract me, I wouldn't compete. Competing at home, competing in the U.S. Open, it just rejuvenates me.'
Indeed, the Open holds a special place in Igarashi's heart. He won back-to-back Open crowns in 2017 and '18, and puts those contest victories at the top of his professional career.
'It was my first big win, so when I won the U.S. Open I was like, OK I think I can move on and do bigger things,' he said. 'It was a confidence booster. To this day, it's right up there with my Bali win and right up there with my [Olympic] silver medal, it's all on the same platform.'
The win in Bali in 2019 is the only CT contest Igarashi has won in what is now his ninth season. But he's been to a final six times, including twice this season. It's a reflection of the progress the 27-year-old has made over the years since qualifying for the CT when he was just 17.
On paper, Igarshi's biggest competition in the Open will be Mexico's Alan Cleland, who is ranked No. 19 in the world and won last year's Open. Cleland will compete in Tahiti, but is too far down in the points standings to have a chance at qualifying for the finals.
Other Southern California surfers who will compete include the San Clemente crew — Kolohe Andino, Kade Matson and Jett Schilling — Long Beach's Nolan Rapoza, Malibu's Taro Watanabe, Encinitas' Levi Slawson and Ventura's Dimitri Poulos.
On the women's side, two names to watch for are San Clemente's Sawyer Lindblad, currently ranked No. 11 in the world and the 2023 Open winner, and Australia's Sally Fitzgibbons, still going strong at age 34 and coming off back-to-back appearances in the Open finals. Fitzgibbons won it last year, and finished runner-up to Lindblad in 2023.
For Fitzgibbons, the contest is a big one in her effort to qualify for next year's CT, which would be her 17th season on surfing's biggest stage. The Open is a Challenger Series event, with the top seven in the standings qualifying for next year's CT.
Fitzgibbons is currently ranked No. 2 in the Challenger Series, but the Open is only the third of the seven contests that will determine the qualifiers.
Fitzgibbons has never won a world title but has finished in the top five a remarkable 10 times, including three consecutive second-place finishes in 2010, '11 and '12.
Caroline Marks, from San Clemente by way of Florida, is currently ranked No. 6 in the world but will not compete at the Open, instead focusing on Tahiti in an effort to get into the top five of the women's standings.
Other Southern California women who will surf in the Open include San Clemente's Bella Kenworthy, Kirra Pinkerton and Eden Walla; Encinitas' Alyssa Spencer, Carlsbad's Reid Von Wagoner and Malibu's Talia Swindal.
The Huntington Beach Longboard Classic also will be held, with the log riders competition starting Saturday and going through July 30.
Out of the water, competitors will perform Saturday and Sunday in freestyle motocross (FMX), a high-flying action sport where riders perform aerial tricks on dirt bikes, using large ramps to launch themselves into the air.