It’s that time of year where California becomes the center of the surfing universe. The Qualifying Series and Championship Tours converge on the Golden State to take in some summer waves along the coast. The Supergirl Pro first leads into the US Open of Surfing to liven up the dog days and start to paint a picture of what 2019 may look like.
Things have been underway in Oceanside, where the Supergirl Pro narrowed its field down to 16 on Saturday, including Carissa Moore, Brisa Hennessy, Malia Manuel, Mahina Maeda, Coco Ho, Alessa Quizon and Tatiana Weston-Webb. Also still in the mix are Johanne Defay, Courtney Conlogue, Lakey Peterson and Caroline Marks, so it’s going to be an absolutely loaded finals day for this QS 6,000 contest.
To this point, it has been all multi-woman heats but the action now switches over with head-to-head matchups the rest of the way. There aren’t any easy spots left and whomever finds her way through this gauntlet will certainly deserve the trophy that awaits.
Manuel and Maeda will face off in an all-Hawaii showdown for a spot in the quarterfinals. Manuel continues to dominate in QS competition, but she does need to keep reaching these stages to ensure herself a spot back on the 2019 dream tour. She entered the event in 12th on the QS leaderboard with just three contests on her ledger. A win over Maeda will catapult her into a very likely qualifying position with a number of big events still remaining on the schedule.
As for Maeda, her QS progress has been somewhat stagnant in recent seasons. Having burst onto the scene in 2014 and finishing 18th on the QS, she followed that up with an 11th place standing in 2015 and appeared ready to hit the CT. However, she’s fallen back to 22nd and 29th since then, now entering this event in 37th for the 2018 season. But a big result in Oceanside could refine that momentum and get her back in the qualification conversation.
Quizon has also been fighting to get back on the CT since falling off in 2016. She may have her most crucial heat of the season as she takes on Marks, who has crushed the QS all year and sits in first place. Quizon is 30th in the rankings and needs to at least get into that final eight to make any sort of dent into the top 20.
Hennessy is also eyeing a nice leap, coming into the contest in 10th place. She’s a solid dark horse selection to reach the semifinals and move into a qualifying position this week, but she’ll have to first take down Keely Andrew and then the winner of the Manuel-Maeda showdown.
Once a champion is crowned, everyone will head an hour north to Huntington Beach, where the men’s QS 10,000 US Open and the women’s CT US Open will get underway on Monday. Stephanie Gilmore was a round four casualty in Oceanside, but that will only give her some extra rest as she maintains the yellow jersey heading into Huntington. Her opening heat will feature defending champ Sage Erickson and a wild card filling the third spot.
Weston-Webb and Manuel will also go against each other in round one, along with Aussie Macy Callaghan.
The men’s QS contest starts with four rounds of trials as 32 surfers try to just make their way into the hefty main draw of 112 competitors. Makai McNamara is Hawaii’s only entrant in the trial rounds as he tries to join Imai Devault, Finn McGill, Tanner Hendrickson, Koa Smith, Cody Young, Keanu Asing, Barron Mamiya, Josh Moniz, Wyatt McHale, Ezekiel Lau, Kiron Jabour, Sebastian Zietz, Seth Moniz and Benji Brand in the field.
With the quality remaining in the women’s draw, the Supergirl Pro finish is certain to be a classic and that only sets the stage for what the self-proclaimed “surf city” still has to offer. Basically, there’s a lot of surfing going on, if you’re into that sort of thing.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
