Huntington Beach's Ryan Turner, Nea Post inducted into Surfing Walk of Fame as U.S. Open resumes

Los Angeles Times

4 days ago

Ryan Turner said he was raised on Main Street, and that's not too far from the truth.
He and his younger brother Timmy would run down the street from the family-owned Sugar Shack Cafe, cross Pacific Coast Highway and head to the ocean.
'This is all I've done my whole childhood, me and my brother running down to the beach and seeing all of the older guys, then finally getting in with everyone and surfing,' Turner said. 'Now it's crazy, it's a full circle with my kids surfing all day. My parents were working all day, and that's what we do. I love this community in Huntington Beach. It supports each other; it's just a rad place.'
Turner, the former Huntington Beach High surf team captain, is now immortalized with his own commemorative stone on the sidewalk he used to roam. He was inducted as a Local Hero during the annual Surfing Walk of Fame ceremony Thursday morning in front of Jack's Surfboards.
Turner, whose daughter Bailey, 16, is a rising talent in the junior surfing world, had his son Ryder, 14, read his induction speech.
Timmy Turner was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in 2016.
'Timmy, he's out there waxing his [stone] every day,' Ryan Turner said with a laugh after the ceremony. 'This is such a huge honor to be up there with these people. There's so many people above me, well deserving, and I'm just so appreciative of it. It's pretty awesome. I can't believe my name is in the sidewalk. My kids are stoked.'
Nea Post was another local inducted, as the Woman of the Year. Post graduated from Huntington Beach High School and ended up going to Golden West College and UC Irvine, all the while winning multiple junior competitions and being selected to the U.S. National Team twice, competing alongside Kelly Slater in Japan.
Post, now married with two children, still lives in Huntington Beach. She told stories of her time on the team with Slater, only to discover that Slater himself was in attendance at Thursday's ceremony, smiling to her left.
'I stayed committed to my schoolwork, and I'm thankful to be a physician today,' Post said. 'It's a privilege, it's a responsibility that I don't take lightly ... As I think back to [Peter 'P.T.' Townend] as the co-founder of the [National Scholastic Surfing Assn.] and what Andy Verdone has done with the high school surf team, and what I embrace as a pediatrician, it is all about the kids.
'I read a recent statistic that although children comprise 22% of the population, they're 100% of the future.'
Barry Kanaiaupuni was inducted as Surf Pioneer, with Al Merrick named the Surf Culture inductee. The late Dale Dobson was inducted as Surf Champion, and Greg Wade was the Honor Role inductee.
Townend served as the event emcee. San Clemente's Kai Finn was also recognized as the MacAllister Award winner, receiving a scholarship for $4,000 for his service to the community.
The action was busy in the water Thursday after the first day of competition was called off Wednesday due to poor conditions.
Eight heats were completed in the men's round of 80, with Kauli Vaast of France among the surfers to move on.
Vaast was the gold medal winner at the Paris Olympics last summer, the French Polynesian earning the gold medal at home.
He called the conditions Thursday 'small, and not a lot of power on the wave,' but he was able to earn a two-wave score of 8.53 to advance.
'It is what it is,' Vaast said, adding that the cancellation Wednesday didn't really faze him. 'You try to keep the same mentality, keep the same focus from the waiting period until the end of the contest.'
Kolohe Andino of San Clemente was also able to advance to the round of 64. The 2020 Olympian's score of 12.00 counted as the third-best score of the round, only bested by Adur Amatriain of Basque Country (13.33) and Shohei Kato of Japan (12.03).
The round of 64 is slated to begin first thing Friday, with Nolan Rapoza of Long Beach in the opening heat. Kanoa Igarashi of Huntington Beach, a two-time U.S. Open winner, is in Heat 8 of 16.
In the women's competition, the Round of 48 was completed Thursday.
Birthday girl Eden Walla of San Clemente, who turned 16 on Thursday, was in a good mood after placing second in her heat to advance.
Walla, a wild card into the event, is competing in her first U.S. Open. She said she enjoys the short trip up the coast to Huntington Beach, where she's been surfing in contests since she was 9.
'It could be either really good or really bad,' she said of surfing on her birthday. 'But I made it, so I'm going to be thankful for that, for sure ... I feel like I've been surfing good [this year]. I had a rough end of the year, I didn't end it how I wanted to on the [World Surf League Qualifying Series], but I feel like that really motivated me to get better and work harder.'
Sierra Kerr of Australia (12.77) and Amuro Tsuzuki of Japan (12.17) threw down big scores to advance to the women's round of 32 on Friday.