The West Coast's Best Junior Surfers Shine at Toyota Huntington Beach Prime

Huntington Beach, Calif. (February 9, 2020) – After hours of grinding in rain and fog, Mother nature served up some of Surf City’s best conditions for the final heats of the Toyota USA Surfing Prime Series this weekend. The best under 18 surfers on the West Coast were threading tubes and smashing impressive combo maneuvers to make the event’s elite podium. 
 
The Prime Series draws more than 80 of the West Coast’s best junior surfers to battle it out for West Coast titles and qualification into the Toyota USA Surfing Championships at Lower Trestles in California. Huntington Beach was the fourth stop of the West Coast Toyota USA Surfing Prime Series season presented by Got Milk? 
 
Highlights included double wins in Girls U18 and U16 by San Clemente’s Sawyer Lindblad, and double podiums for Caitlin Simmers of Oceanside. Sawyer had the highest wave score of the event – a 9.33. Coach Brett Simpson says Sawyer is taking her surfing to the next gear.
 
Oceanside’s Lucas Owston kept his Boys U16 winning streak rolling with a nice tube ride to two-turn combo. Makai Bray snagged the Boys U14 win with a couple of big, committed, frontside kick tails.
 
Dimitri Poulos of Ventura ran away with the Boys U18 win, posting an 8.43 and 8 for the event’s highest heat total: 16.43.  It was awesome to see Hayden Rodgers back in the jersey and making finals after recovering from a gnarly Pipeline injury. 
 
See full event results below and pictures on Instagram and Facebook.
 
USA Surfing’s Prime Series was created to bridge the gap young surfers experience when making the jump to the bigger leagues of surfing, including a position on the USA Surfing national teams, the World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series, the WSL Championship Tour and potentially the Olympic Games. The Prime format provides surfers with an experience similar to WSL pro events with professional WSL/ISA judges and announcers, four-person heats using priority, computer scoring live on the STACT App and instant replay for the judges.
 
The invite-only Prime Series is a competition among surfers who placed highest in regional competitions held by USA Surfing’s affiliate organizations – the Western Surfing Association, and National Scholastic Surfing Association.
 
​RESULTS
 
Girls U18
1st    Sawyer Lindblad, San Clemente, Calif.
2nd   Caitlin Simmers, Oceanside, Calif.
3rd    Samantha Sibley, San Clemente, Calif.
4th    Alyssa Spencer, Carlsbad, Calif. 
 
Boys U18
1st   Dimitri Poulos, Ventura, Calif. 
2nd  Kade Matson, San Clemente, Calif. 
3rd   Hagan Johnson, San Clemente, Calif. 
4th   Jett Schilling, San Clemente, Calif.
 
Girls U16
1st   Sawyer Lindblad, San Clemente, Calif. 
2nd  Caitlin Simmers, Oceanside, Calif. 
3rd   Bella Kenworthy, Dana Point, Calif.
4th   Sierra Downer, San Clemente, Calif. 
 
Boys U16
1st   Lucas Owston, Oceanside, Calif. 
2nd  Cole McCaffray, Encinitas, Calif. 
3rd   Luke Guinaldo, Huntington Beach, Calif.
4th   Hayden Rodgers, San Clemente, Calif.
 
Boys U14
1st    Makai Bray, San Clemente, Calif. 
2nd  Cannon Carr, San Clemente, Calif. 
3rd   Kai Kushner, Manhattan Beach, Calif.
4th   Luke Wyler, San Clemente, Calif.
 
Several World Surf League stand outs honed their skills in the Prime Series, including the first Americans to qualify for surfing’s first Olympics – Caroline Marks and Kolohe Andino. Others include U.S. Open winners Courtney Conlogue, Sage Erickson and Kanoa Igarashi, and Lakey Peterson, Conner Coffin, Griffin Colapinto and more. Looking back at the Prime Series results over the past ten-plus years is a who’s who in American surfing. 
 
USA Surfing’s Prime Series is grateful for the support of incredible sponsors, including DJO®, a leading provider of medical technologies designed to support surfer mobility and rehabilitation, SunBum, Wienerschnitzel, GoGoSqueeZ BlastZ, New Era Cap, Carver Skateboards, Got Milk?, Hot Shoppe Designs, Outlets at San Clemente, HydroFlask, Tea of a Kind, Blue Diamond Almonds, Jacuzzi, Leus, Rise Brewing Company and DSC Performance.
 
Contact: becky (at) usasurfing (dot) org
 
USA Surfing is the National Governing Body for surfing in the United States, recognized by the International Surfing Association (ISA) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). USA Surfing’s mission is to promote and grow the sport of surfing and support United States athletes of all backgrounds to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American competition. USA Surfing will oversee and support America’s Olympic team as surfing makes its debut in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and surfing and stand-up paddleboarding athletes compete in the 2019 Pan American Games.
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