Jack's Surfboards Pro surfing event returns this weekend in Huntington Beach
April brings a fresh start to aspiring Championship Tour professional surfers.
The first event of the 2025-26 World Surf League Qualifying Series season, the Vans Jack's Surfboards Pro presented by 805, launches Thursday morning on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.
The Jack's Surfboards Pro started in 2017 as a men's QS 1,000 event, and is now a QS 4,000 event for both genders as part of a new points system put in place by the league this year.
Past champions of the event include 2024 Championship Tour Rookies of the Year Sawyer Lindblad and Crosby Colapinto, both of whom call San Clemente home.
'We're thrilled to kick off the 2025-26 season with the Jack's Pro, and even more excited to host it right here in our hometown of Huntington Beach,' Jack's Surfboards co-owner Jamal Abdelmuti said in a news release. 'It's a fantastic opportunity to support the young, up-and-coming surfers from our region. This year marks our eighth edition of the Jacks Pro, and thanks to our incredible partners in the surf industry, the event continues to grow and evolve.'
Lucca Mesinas of Peru won the men's Jack's Surfboards Pro last year and is back to defend his title. Kirra Pinkerton of San Clemente was last year's women's champion.
Mesinas, a former Championship Tour competitor, won four times on the North American QS during the 2024-25 season en route to his second QS regional title.
Huntington Beach High senior Sara Freyre is also confirmed for this year's Jack's Surfboards Pro. Freyre, who has been a U.S. Open of Surfing wild-card participant and competed on the USA Surfing Junior National Team, also seeks to begin the season with a good result.
'It's so exciting to kick off a fresh season at home at the Jack's Surfboards Pro!' Freyre said to WorldSurfLeague.com. 'This is always one of my favorite events of the year because it's right at my home break. It is so fun because my friends and family come down and support me. I am so grateful they put this event on and give this opportunity, especially now that it is a QS 4,000. This year I am going to take it one event at a time and focus on giving it my all.'
The Jack's Surfboards Pro runs through Sunday at the south side of the pier, and admission is free. A live webcast will be shown at worldsurfleague.com, the WSL app and YouTube channel.
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Los Angeles Times
02-06-2025
- Los Angeles Times
The ‘Deathracers' key to staying young? Skateboarding into your 60s and beyond
Chad Rivera gingerly makes his way to the edge of what looks like an emptied out swimming pool, a lime-green skateboard in one hand, a white cane in the other. At 58, he's legally blind, but he's been skateboarding since he was 5, so what's about to happen is part muscle memory, part 'trust fall.' Dozens of other skateboarders — mostly men in their 50s and 60s decked out in skating gear — roll along the periphery, watching on, at Encinitas Skate Park near San Diego. It's not yet 11 a.m., but punk music blasts from the speakers, punctuated by the rumbling and clanking of skateboard wheels on concrete. Standing at the deep end, Rivera considers the pool bowl's nine-foot concrete walls. He sets down his white cane and secures the tail of his board on the pool's rim with one foot, the rest of the board hanging in the air, like a mini diving board. He then steps onto the front of the board with his other foot and throws his body weight forward, 'dropping in.' He races down and around the sides of the walls before flipping around and landing back up on the pool deck. It's a frightening move to watch, but Rivera now beams, triumphant, eyes shining. 'Woo! Feel it and kill it,' says Rivera, a retired grape grower who's suffered from a rare optic nerve disease since he was 22. 'It always feels good, so I keep doing it. I'll never stop, no matter how old I get.' Rivera is a member of Deathracer413, a group of older skateboarders who believe that skateboarding is their key to longevity. They grew up amid the '70s and '80s skate scene and are as passionate about the sport as when they were teens. Many of them are now retired and the joy they get from skateboarding, the sense of community and the health benefits, such as core strength and balance, keep them young, they say. The inherent danger gives them an adrenaline rush that, they argue, keeps their brains sharp. 'Our slogan is: Keep dropping in or you'll be dropping out,' says the group's founder, Doug Marker, a former professional skateboarder and retired construction worker who's lived in San Diego his entire life. Marker, who also surfs, plays guitar and rides motorcycles, is 63 going on 16, with silver hair and a skate-park suntan. On this Saturday morning, he's wearing baggy shorts, Vans sneakers and a graphic T-shirt featuring 'Death Racer' in heavy metal band-like typography. 'Knowing you can get hurt keeps you ultra-focused,' Marker says. 'And trusting that you can do it — believing in yourself — is hugely empowering. I keep dropping in, I keep going. It's put me into a bubble where I never feel like I'm getting older.' Marker founded Deathracer413 in 2011 to draw like-minded people who are 'living life to the fullest,' he says. The name Deathracer reminded him of a motorcycle club and 413 are his initials, numerically. It was just a loose social affiliation at first, but in 2020 Marker launched the Deathracer413 Road Show, an invitation to join him in skating a different skate park every Saturday. Deathracer413 now includes former and current pro skateboarders doing tricks alongside average enthusiasts and late-life skating newbies. There are a handful of women in the group as well as a few children honing their skills with the masters. Marker estimates there are about 1,300 members of the group internationally, though typically only about 20-30 locals attend on any given Saturday. He welcomes anyone into the club and mails them a 'welcome letter' and custom Deathracer413 patch that he designed. Hundreds of recipients remain members from afar, kindred spirits who share a 'full throttle' outlook on life and participate via social media. Others have trekked from Australia, Germany, Belgium and the UK to skate with Deathracer413. ''Cause now everybody's retired and can travel,' Marker says. 'They're finding destinations to come and skateboard and San Diego's a top one. So they come.' As Deathracer413 celebrates its 200th skating session, the vibe is affectionate and rambunctious, jovial retiree backyard barbecue meets heavily tattooed skater meetup. More than 50 members — many with bushy gray beards, paunchy bellies and caps reading 'The Goonies: Never Say Die' or 'Independent' — mingle on the pool deck, cracking open beers, fist-bumping one another and catching up on life as the Ramones' 'I Wanna Be Sedated' fades into Bikini Kill's 'Rebel Girl' on the sound system. The skaters drop into the pool one after another — swirling and swooshing around, 'carving' and 'grinding,' before popping back up — in such tight succession it feels choreographed. It's as if we're inside a pinball machine, with tiny objects orbiting around one another maniacally, wheels spinning, helmets twisting, boards whizzing by or flying into the air before crashing back down. Every so often someone wipes out, sliding across the pool bottom, sparking cheers of encouragement. 'I feel like the older I get the more I worry about getting hurt — because it lasts longer,' admits skateboarding legend Steve Caballero, 60. 'If you think about it, it's kind of a scary sport. You can get really hurt.' Caballero has been a pro skateboarder since he was 15 and fear doesn't stop him today — 'I'll stop when my body tells me to stop,' he says. He performs one of his signature moves, sliding along the rim of the pool on the skateboard truck instead of the wheels. No small feat for a body that's endured more than 45 years of extreme athletics. A documentary about his life, 'Steve Caballero: The Legend of the Dragon,' debuts this November. 'It definitely keeps me in shape,' he says. 'It keeps me youthful-thinking, staying creative and being challenged. I think when people get older they quit doing these things because they feel like they should. I'm trying to show people, hey, even in your older age you can still have fun and challenge yourself.' The feeling of freedom, the thrill of sailing through the air, is worth the risk to Barry Blumenthal, 60, a retired stockbroker. 'I'm more worried about crashing my car. I mean, I wear gear in here,' Blumenthal says. 'Skating is just extreme fun where you can't help but grin. It's kid-like. It's a fountain of youth experience. You're chasing stoke.' No doubt 'dropping in' and 'chasing stoke' for eternity would be 'rad.' But is there any validity to Deathracer413's claims that skateboarding promotes health and longevity? 'I'd worry about fractures,' says Dr. Jeremy Swisher, a UCLA sports medicine physician. 'As you get older, it takes the body longer to heal. But it comes down to a risk-benefit analysis. The endorphins, the adrenaline — the joy of it — as well as the new challenges that stress the mind in a good way would be very mentally stimulating. You're forming new neural pathways as you're trying new moves. It would help keep the brain young and fresh.' 'I race cars for a hobby, and I know what that does for my aging,' adds Dr. Eric Verdin, president and chief executive of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Northern California. 'Finding a thing that you're passionate about, having a sense of community, not to mention the balance and motor coordination — skateboarding is extremely physical — all of that is part of healthy aging.' Deathracer413 also has an important place in the trajectory of skateboarding. Skateboarding has been around in California since the 1950s — a way to recreate surfing, but on dry land. 'Vertical skateboarding,' which the Deathracers partake in, grew out of SoCal kids commandeering emptied backyard swimming pools. It was especially prevalent during the 1976-77 drought, when residents had to drain their pools and kids began performing elaborate airborne tricks. Skate parks emerged and 'vert skating,' as it was dubbed, became a phenomenon. The first park in California opened in Carlsbad in 1976 and the San Diego area is still considered a central hub for the sport. So today there's a critical mass of '70s and '80s-era skateboarding devotees who still live nearby. That's why Deathracer413 — the only club of its kind in the area, Marker says — has so many active members. 'There hasn't ever been 60-year-plus [vert skaters] before,' Marker says. 'The sport's not that old. So that's kind of our thing — we're just gonna keep pushing the bar.' In that sense, Deathracer413 is more than a subcultural vestige — its members present a sports medicine study of sorts, says Michael Burnett, editor in chief of 'Thrasher Magazine,' a longtime skateboarding publication. 'There were a few old-guy outliers, but this is the first generation of older skaters,' Burnett says. 'We're now witnessing how long someone can physically skateboard for — this is the test. It's uncharted territory.' Still, many of the Deathracers have modifed their skating techniques as they've aged. Marker says he now skates within 80-85% of his ability range to be safe. Others admit that the inevitable — death — is on their minds. 'As an older adult, you can get into your head about, oh, how much time do I have left?' says John Preston Brooks, 56. 'But a lot of people here are older than me and it just makes me realize I got a lot more time to do the things I love and make the best of life.' David Skinner, 60, a retired school teacher, says he's realistic about his physical limits. 'A lot of us have health issues,' he says. 'We're not necessarily trying to cheat death, but we're definitely trying to stay ahead. We know it's coming, but we wanna keep dropping in and having fun, and this gives us a venue to do it. As the day grinds on, the skate session morphs into an actual barbecue. Marker fires up the grill, tossing on an assortment of meat: burgers, bratwursts, hot dogs. Plumes of aromatic smoke float over the pool bowl, which is still getting some action. Lance Smith, 74, stands off to the side of the bowl, a Coors Light in one hand, a Nikon camera in the other. With his dark sunglasses, soul patch of facial hair above his chin and trucker hat that reads 'Old Bro,' he appears like someone's cool great-uncle. He can't skate anymore due to three replacements — two hip, one knee — after years of skateboarding injuries. ('I wouldn't trade it for anything,' he says.) But Smith, who documented the SoCal skateboarding scene in the '70s and photo edited the book 'Tracker: Forty Years of Skateboard History,' still attends Deathracer413 events nearly every Saturday. He photographs club members in action. 'It's the community,' Smith says, stretching out his arm and snapping a passing skater. 'I get enjoyment out of shooting pictures and seeing my friends skateboard. And, yeah, drinking a Coors Light.' Deathracer413 is both a brotherhood and a sisterhood, says Tuli Lam, 31, a physical therapy student and one of the only women skaters in attendance today. 'When I'm here, I'm just one of the guys. We're bonded by skating.' That camaraderie is evident when the group presents Marker with a gift of thanks. 'OK, gather round! Bring it in!' yells Lansing Pope, 58. The skaters crowd around, stretching their necks to see what's in the wrapped box Marker is tearing open. 'It's a knee brace!' someone yells. 'It's a crutch!' says another. 'Something for his prostate?' jokes a third. 'Whoa, super dope,' Marker says. (It's a leather Deathracer413 bedroll for his motorcycle.) 'I'm super stoked.' 'Till your wheels fall off!' several guys scream in unison, fists in the air. Then, as if on cue, the skaters disperse around the pool bowl, streaming in and out of it, the sound of rattling wheels and screeching metal on concrete filling the space. Tye Donnelly, 54, surveys the scene from a nearby picnic table, an electric guitar on his lap. He noodles on it, playing a mix of Black Sabbath and reggae. 'When I was 18, I never thought I'd be the old age of 20 and still skateboarding,' he says. 'At 54, I thought I'd have a hat on, a suit, with a newspaper. But it turns out you can skateboard your whole life. And I'm thankful for this group — because it wasn't like this back in the day.' Caballero sums up senior skateboarding best: 'This is the new bingo.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘It sucks, man': World Surf League's dreaded cut claims its final unlucky victims
On Tuesday, as a towering swell groomed by the Roaring Forties across the Indian Ocean reached its explosive final destination on the Western Australian coast, two surfers battled for their careers. Australian-Japanese surfer Connor O'Leary and Queenslander Liam O'Brien took on each other and Margaret River's pumping conditions to retain a spot on the World Surf League's Championship Tour. With O'Leary just above and O'Brien just below the dreaded cut-line, victory would be a major step towards safety; defeat would likely consign the loser to a re-qualification slog on the second-tier Challenger Series. Advertisement The round of 32 heat seesawed and the lead changed – O'Leary scored the wave of the heat, while O'Brien nailed one of the best turns of the entire day with a stabbing hook. But when the dust settled, O'Leary found himself a point ahead and O'Brien's two-year career on the Championship Tour came to a devastating close. The pair embraced at the top of the Main Break stairs, friends and rivals sharing mixed emotions. 'It sucks, man,' O'Leary said after securing his elite status for another year. 'To come up in such a high-pressure heat with one of your close mates… I've been hanging around with LOB [O'Brien] for a couple of years now, we're really close. It sucks, but I guess you've just got to put it all aside and put yourself first.' Stop seven on the 2025 tour at Margaret River is home to 'the cut'. The feature, added in 2022, serves two purposes. It slims the field for the remainder of the season – from 34 to 22 men and 18 to 10 women – and determines which surfers are guaranteed a spot on the following season's campaign and who must re-qualify. 'It sucks that we had to match up in this round, but I'm sure he's going to be back better than ever,' O'Leary insisted of the defeated O'Brien. 'He's too good of a surfer not to be on tour.' Advertisement The cut has been among the most controversial of a series of changes to the WSL introduced by tour authorities in an attempt to garner greater casual interest; the WSL also changed from an all-season cumulative points total approach to crown the champion, to a final-five playoff for the title. Related: Filipe Toledo denies Australian wildcard Julian Wilson fairytale in epic WSL final Local surfer Jacob Willcox knows the feeling. The 27-year-old made his first WSL appearance as a wildcard over a decade ago, in 2013. He was a semi-regular wildcard feature on the tour over the years, before finally securing qualification in 2024. But last year's WSL only saw five events before the cut, and so after battling for years to reach the pinnacle of the sport, Willcox was unceremoniously dumped off the tour in a matter of months. On Tuesday, back in the event after winning the local trials, Willcox downed world No 1 Italo Ferreira; a day later he saw off João Chianca at the Box, a fearsome slab wave used as an alternative venue, to qualify for the quarter-finals. But the bitterness of last year's cut still lingered – he described the format as 'unfair' in one interview. Advertisement 'It feels a lot better than it did last year, that's for sure,' Willcox said after beating Ferreira. 'Last year was just bitter disappointment – this year I feel like I'm going for a bit of redemption at home, and set myself up for a good year on the Challenger.' Willcox had been unable to re-qualify on last year's Challenger series, finishing 21st (only the top 10 surfers secure a place on the top-tier tour). At Margaret River, as Willcox won through the heats, he saw friends and compatriots – including O'Brien, veteran Ryan Callinan and rookie George Pittar – vanquished and on the wrong side of the line. 'It's heartbreaking watching those boys – I know exactly how they feel,' Willcox said. 'If I can say anything, it all comes around – you'll get your chance again. Both those guys are so talented, they'll get back on tour.' For Willcox, there was a silver lining – globetrotting companions in the months ahead. 'And I get to travel with them for a year, so we'll have a good group of people all getting around each other and all getting back on tour for next year,' he added. After several years of controversy, the WSL has unveiled major format changes for 2026 – including an end to the cut, an expanded female field and a return to the overall points total method for determining the Champions Tour winner. An end to the cut has been well-received by the travelling surfers, although there is no denying the excitement it adds to the competition – even if it is artificial. The cut will be replaced by a late-season mini-cut – with the field slimming for two final events – before the entire field returns for the final event, at Pipeline in Hawaii. Advertisement WSL commissioner Jessi Miley-Dyer says that returning Pipeline to its traditional role as the end-of-season event was a decisive factor (in recent years, Pipeline has opened the campaign). 'There's a lot of pressure that's come with the mid-season cut,' says Miley-Dyer. 'The main thing for us when it comes to relegation lines is qualification [for the following season]. There's nothing more exciting than Pipe. If there's a wave as an athlete, as a surfer, that you think about, dreaming about, competing at, to make your career or break your career, it's Pipe. So being at Pipeline, having that full year, it makes sense.' Related: Steph Gilmore: 'I was looking for something more, in myself and in my surfing' | Kieran Pender Returning to Pipeline to crown the champion and ending the mid-season cut embeds the WSL in its own traditions, a rejection of the for-television modernity that had been ushered in by former WSL chief executive Erik Logan (a former Oprah Winfrey Network executive). But while the excitement of the cut may be calorific, it is thrilling all the same. On Tuesday, after winning through the elimination round, Australian veteran Sally Fitzgibbons was in tears; she needs to go deep, and probably win the Margaret River Pro, to avoid the cut. Surf magazine Stab described the 'emotional spectacle' of that moment as 'visceral'. The cut is cruel and dramatic. 'Have we not been entertained, for the past four years?' Stab added. Miley-Dyer, a former pro-surfer herself, had plenty of empathy for the highs and lows on display at the Margaret River Pro. 'I feel for people,' she said. 'It's one of those events where we're going to watch people have incredible performances and leave on really big highs; if you haven't qualified for the next year, you'll have to pick yourself up again.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Fitzgibbons' fight to stay on tour is down to the wire
Sally Fitzgibbons has survived the first hurdle in securing her future on the World Surf League's top tour, advancing through the elimination round at the Margaret River Pro. But another Australian veteran wasn't as fortunate, with Ryan Callinan packing his bags as a victim of the mid-season cut. A huge swell arrived at the famous Western Australian break on Tuesday for the resumption of competition after two lay days, with wave faces at times topping five metres. Waking up with this swell! 🌊🚨 The @westernaustralia #MargaretRiverPro is ON. Watch live it at — World Surf League (@wsl) May 19, 2025 Championship Tour veteran Fitzgibbons was pitted in a heat against Bettylou Sakura Johnson, the Hawaiian winner of their final at the Gold Coast Pro last weekend. Trials winner, local surfer Willow Hardy, was also in the heat which became a neck and neck battle with less than a point splitting the trio at the end. With the surfers trying to avoid being pounded by the heavy waves, Sakura Johnson (8.84) took the win with 2017 champion Fitzgibbons (8.33) second ahead of Hardy (7.97). She next faces current rankings leader Gabriela Bryan, with the Hawaiian the defending Margaret River Pro champion. Currently ranked 14th, Fitzgibbons needs at least a quarter-final appearance to avoid a third straight top 10 mid-season cut, while holding her ranking will ensure she keeps her place on the Championship Tour in 2026, with the women's field expanding. American veteran Lakey Peterson, who also advanced through sudden-death, is the only surfer in the field who can take her place. Callinan, meanwhile, is headed to the Challenger Series after finishing last in his elimination showdown with Hawaiian Barron Mamiya and Jacob Willcox. The 32-year-old dropped to No.34 in the rankings, with the top 22 men moving on to the next tour stop at Lower Trestles in California. The Newcastle surfer's hopes were hit hard when he missed two events, through injury, and then for the arrival of his baby earlier this month. Fellow Australians Mikey McDonagh and Winter Vincent both moved through elimination into the round of 32.
