Levi Slawson, Sawyer Lindblad top competition at U.S. Open of Surfing

Los Angeles Times

13 hours ago

More than 120 surfers from all over the world converged on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier during the past week to compete in the U.S. Open of Surfing, and when all was said and done, two Southern California locals came away with the men's and women's crowns.
Levi Slawson of Encinitas outlasted an aggressive Mateus Herdy of Brazil in the men's final, while San Clemente's Sawyer Lindblad beat 14-year-old Tya Zebrowski of France in the women's final to win her second Open, each winner taking home $20,000 in prize money.
The men's final finished with so much drama that it left the thousands watching from the beach and pier in silence, waiting to hear the final scores after the horn sounded to end the 35-minute heat.
Slawson put up an early score of 7.33 to set the tone for the heat, leaving Herdy to do what he does — catch as many waves as possible and turn it into an air show. Herdy rode a remarkable 18 waves in the heat, most of them coming in the final half of the heat after Slawson's second score of 6.17 gave him the lead, 13.50 to 10.57.
Slawson held onto priority, letting Herdy attempt to pull off a big air on multiple waves in an effort to get the 7.93 he needed to take the lead. The strategy seemed to be working until the final minute, when Herdy took to the sky and landed an air reverse, before connecting to the inside.
Slawson caught one last wave in the final 10 seconds, but it would not figure into the scoring, meaning Herdy's score on his final wave would determine the winner.
The beach went silent as Slawson straddled his board and waited patiently for the judges' scores to be announced — 7.70, just slightly shy of the 7.93 he needed, and the beach erupted with Slawson winning, 13.50 to 13.27.
'I gave Mateus a chance at the end, I should have just taken that wave off him,' Slawson said. 'You just never really know in those pressure moments, so I was just waiting and hoping for the best.'
While Herdy was riding everything in sight, Slawson remained cool, picking and choosing his spots.
'I knew exactly what Mateus was going to do, I've surfed a bunch of heats against him,' Slawson said. 'I knew he was going to ride a ton of waves, and for me I was going to stick to my strategy and get my two good waves. And when I got my two good waves, I was going to sit right next to him and hold him off any opportunities.'
The victory for Slawson was huge, considering he got off to a rough start on the Challenger Series (CS), which is the stepping stone to the Championship Tour (CT). He was ranked No. 48 on the CS before the Open, which qualifies the top 10 to the CT at the end of the seven-event season. The victory propelled Slawson to No. 4.
'For me to take my first win on the Challenger Series, it means everything,' he said. 'I've dreamt of winning a contest this big my whole life. I haven't ever had a win this big in my career. I knew I had it in me, and I'm grateful for my support team.'
In the women's final, Lindblad, 19, surfed a near-perfect heat technically, putting up numbers early, taking the lead and then playing the priority game in the final minutes to hold off Zebrowski, 13.17 to 12.57.
'Definitely pretty stressful letting her go on some of those waves,' Lindblad said. 'But I knew that I couldn't let her have priority with a couple of minutes left. It's super important to hang onto it until the very end.'
Lindblad was able to surf the contest free and easy, considering she has already qualified for next year's CT, ranked No. 11 in the world. So the results from the Open were not crucial for her.
'Yeah, I felt like I could just relax and surf,' she said. 'Even at the end, I wasn't even that stressed. I was like, whatever happens, happens.'
What happened is Lindblad became one of only a handful of women's surfers to win the Open twice, also taking home the honors in 2023.
'This event is iconic and is an event I've always wanted to win,' she said. 'And to do it twice is surreal. I'm just really grateful.
'I feel like '23 it was more shocking and surprising when I won. And it was what made my career, getting me on the CT. This year I didn't feel like an underdog.'
Huntington Beach's Kanoa Igarashi made it to finals day, but was ousted by Brazil's Michael Rodrigues in the quarterfinals, 12.76 to 12.37. Igarashi led the entire heat until Rodrigues pulled ahead with just three minutes remaining.
Right after coming up short in his heat, Igarashi left the beach to go home and pack for a Sunday night flight to Tahiti, site of the final CT contest of the season starting Thursday, in an effort to qualify for the championships in Fiji at the end of August.
Igarashi is ranked No. 3 in the world and needs to finish in the top five to earn a chance at a world title.
'Tahiti's been on my mind the past two weeks, but I was so happy to compete at home,' he said. 'The last few days have been really fun, so I've just been enjoying myself.'
Falling short of winning what would have been his third Open title reminded Igarashi of what he needs to focus on moving forward.
'That's competition,' he said. 'One mistake can lead to a heat loss. Even my first couple heats, I could have made a mistake and lost first round or second round. At this level, everyone is surfing so good that any little mistake is really costly, whether it's in the U.S. Open or next week in Tahiti. It's good though; it kept me sharp and is definitely a reminder that you can't leave the door open for anybody.'