Hawaii’s John John Florence and Californian Caitlin Simmers have taken out the World Surf League Finals at Lower Trestles in California, with Florence snapping a seven-year drought to clinch his third world title and 18-year-old Simmers becoming the youngest female to win the world crown.
Florence, 31, and Simmers entered the WSL finals as the top seeds, meaning they lay in wait as the other four competitors in each field surfed off before the best of three heat showdown to decide the crown.
Florence had to stop rampant Brazilian Italo Ferreira, who charged through the day, the fifth seed eliminating No 4 Ewing, No 3 Robinson and then second-ranked Griffin Colapinto.
The Hawaiian, who battled years of injuries, edged Ferreira in the first heat, only riding two waves to total 15.53 while the Brazilian 2019 world champion tallied 15.33.
After an epic day Ferreira looked to have run out of gas in the second heat, deflated after Florence opened with a score of 9.70 which he then backed up with a 8.43 to take the win 18.13 to 16.30. It ended Brazil’s vice-like grip on the world title, having won the last five consecutive championships.
Australia’s wait for another world champion continues with eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore winning her last title in 2022 and no Australian man having triumphed since 2013, when Mick Fanning grabbed the last of his three gongs.
Fanning was in Ethan Ewing’s corner at Lower Trestles, in California, for the one-day winner-take-all decider but was unable to steer to Queenslander to victory. Olympic silver medallist Jack Robinson and Molly Picklum were also early casualties.
Australia has ties to Florence, with his wife Lauryn an Australian and his new baby son named Darwin.
“The last seven years have been so tough, there’s been so many injuries and just fighting back to be in this position, and then having this new format that’s so stressful,” said Florence, who hadn’t previously made the top five decider.
“I’ve known since Brazil that I was going to have the No 1 seed so I’ve had a lot of time to think about it and I just can’t believe it. My wife, my son, my team, I couldn’t have done it without them because the injuries and the down days, there was so much going into these last few years to get to this point.”
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Simmers eclipsed five-time world champion Carissa Moore as the youngest women’s champion by six days, winning at 18 years, 10 months and 12 days old.
The women’s title came down to the third heat with reigning world champion and Olympic gold medallist Caroline Marks snatching the first heat in a thriller. Simmers dominated the second heat, living up to her top billing with two nine point rides.
The pair were starved of waves in the third heat, with Simmers scoring 15.16 while her Olympic teammate and great friend Marks only managed one score, a 7.17.
“It means so much, I literally was going through every single emotion today and it just feels f***ing crazy,” said Simmers. “I went and cried in the locker room for 30 minutes until my first heat, I didn’t want freaking Caroline to have it all because that freaking girl wins everything and she’s the hardest person to beat.”
Fourth seed Picklum, 21, was eliminated in the first heat of the day by in-form Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb.
Ewing was beaten on the buzzer by Ferreira in the men’s opener, unable to improve on last year’s runner-up effort. Ferreira then moved on to Robinson and really found his groove, pulling off multiple back-to-back lofty air rotations for a two-wave score of 14.57 to take down the West Australian, who tallied 9.94.