U.S. Open of Surfing heads into weekend with 32 hopefuls remaining
San Clemente’s Jett Schilling won the World Surf League World Junior Championships in Oceanside in January.
Now the 20-year-old finds himself further up the coast, trying to make his mark at the U.S. Open of Surfing on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.
“Doing well out here would be the ultimate goal in life,” Schilling said Friday. “I mean, to have my name on the list like everyone else would be huge.”
He’s off to a good start at the Challenger Series event.
Schilling won the final round of 32 heat of the day as the event advances to the bracket stage over the weekend.
In doing so, he took out Eli Hanneman of Hawaii, last year’s U.S. Open men’s champion, who finished third in the four-man heat and failed to advance.
San Clemente’s Sawyer Lindblad, last year’s U.S. Open women’s champion, also was eliminated in the round of 32 on Friday.
The town still has two other men’s surfers in contention, in Crosby Colapinto and Kolohe Andino. Colapinto, the top seed, finished second in his heat Friday to advance. Andino, who is trying to find his championship form again, caught a late wave to edge out a win on Friday in the heat immediately preceding Schilling’s heat.
“It’s really good to see Kolohe doing well,” Schilling said. “He’s a veteran now, and to have a guy like him make it, it just fires me up too.”
Jarvis Earle of Australia surfs against Ian Gouveia of Brazil in the round of 16 on Saturday. In winning his heat on Friday, Gouveia qualified for the Championship Tour.
Other matchups include Riaru Ito of Japan against Miguel Pupo of Brazil, and Alan Cleland of Mexico against Michael Rodrigues of Brazil. Colapinto surfs against Ian Gentil of Hawaii, while Caio Ibelli of Brazil faces George Pittar of Australia.
Dakoda Walters of Australia surfs against Marco Mignot of France, Andino goes against Morgan Cibilic of Australia and Schilling faces Jackson Bunch of Hawaii to close out the round.
That Schilling-Bunch heat is a rematch of the World Junior Championships final.
“It should be a fun one,” Schilling said. “He’s a good friend, but it could be a rivalry, for sure.”
On the women’s side, Isabella Nichols of Australia had to really grind out a heat win. In fact, she thought she lost as she walked back up the beach.
“It was an interesting situation,” she said. “It’s not that the loudspeaker wasn’t loud enough. I think I just was so focused on what I was doing, and I must have heard the score wrong. Ever since then, I was just in fight mode.”
It wasn’t pretty, but Nichols earned a two-wave score of 9.70, advancing along with Amuro Tsuzuki of Japan, who recored a 9.60. She said to win a heat like that, fighting tooth and nail to do so, was rewarding.
Nichols, who is currently atop the Challenger Series rankings, will also surf in the final round of 16 heat, going against Alyssa Spencer from Carlsbad.
Huntington Beach is one of her favorite tour stops.
“The atmosphere is amazing,” Nichols said. “It feels like there’s a lot of energy in the air, so everyone loves coming here. It’s for sure the one I want to win the most.”
Other women’s round of 16 matchups include: Ellie Harrison (Australia) vs. Luana Silva (Brazil); Kirra Pinkerton (San Clemente) vs. Nadia Erostarbe (Spain); Tessa Thysson (France) vs. Sophia Medina (Brazil); Sally Fitzgibbons (Australia) vs. Erin Brooks (Canada); Lakey Peterson (Santa Barbara) vs. Bronte Macaulay (Australia); Keala Tomoda-Bannert (Hawaii) vs. Yolanda Hopkins (Portugal); and Bella Kenworthy (San Clemente) vs. Tsuzuki.
Action at the U.S. Open of Surfing continues Saturday, beginning at 7:30 a.m.
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