HUNTINGTON BEACH – Growing up surfing on the National Scholastic Surfing Association tour, Parker Coffin has always been cast in the shadow of his older brother Conner – the top-ranked surfer on tour.
Yet in Monday’s open men’s final of the West Coast Championships presented by Nike 6.0, Parker, 14 of Santa Monica, made a statement of his own by posting the highest two-wave score of the five-day event at Huntington Beach Pier to win his first open men’s singles title of the season.
“It is kind of a freak thing for me to do this well,” Coffin said. “I felt out of sorts all day before paddling out for the final. But I’m so psyched to win it.”
Click here for a photo slide show from Monday’s surfing action at the West Coast Championships.
After the final round of the event was delayed by a day because of rough surf at Huntington Beach Pier Sunday morning, 4- to 8-foot waves treated spectators to multiple aerial displays and high scores.
Coffin, who also won the explorer boy’s division, delivered the biggest of the day, starting the open men’s final heat a few minutes after the siren with a long ride that featured multiple carves to receive a 9.67.
“The wave was perfect – it was a nine wave all by itself,” said Coffin, who received a 7.17 on his second wave of the final. “I just did what the wave let me do.”
Coffin’s strong showing relegated Huntington Beach’s Christain Saenz, 18, to second place with an 8.84 two-wave score.
It was the second consecutive year that Saenz, a senior at Huntington Beach High, took the runner-up position.
“It is just a repeat of last year,” Saenz said. “But Parker got some great waves and surfed amazing today. And second is not a bad result – I’m still stoked.”
Saenz did not go home empty-handed, however, as he was named the NSSA Southwest Conference surfer of the year at an awards ceremony after the event. It was the second consecutive year Saenz won the award, the first Southwest Conference surfer to repeat since Tom Curren in 1981-82.
Coffin and Saenz’s fellow competitor in the open men’s final, Jake Halstead of La Jolla, also turned heads by taking advantage of the converging northwest and southwest swells throughout the event.
Hallstead’s 9.67 wave score on Thursday set the early pace for the event, something he nearly matched with a 9.50 on his way to the title in the open junior’s division on Monday.
“It was my final wave and I didn’t know if I needed another score when I took the wave,” Hallstead said. “I took off and carved and then saw a boli section, and knew that was where I had to solidify. I did, and just coasted in from there.”
Hallstead’s two-wave score of 16.83 was nearly matched a few heats later in the finals of the open boys’ division, where 12-year-old Jake Davis of Capistrano Beach turned in a 15.83 two-wave score, highlighted by an 8.33 on his final wave.
“It was a bumpy set, but I thought I needed a score so I took it,” Davis said. “It ended up being a great ride and just put the nail in the coffin for me.”
All of the surfers were jostling for NSSA tour points, which will qualify them for the national championships, held June 29-July 3 at Huntington Beach Pier. With the notoriety that the national event offers, many of the surfers were using the WCC as a steppingstone to the nationals.
“I am stoked because this is the biggest thing you can win besides the nationals,” Coffin, the open men’s champion, said. “Maybe now that I win some events like this people will stop calling me Connor by mistake in the awards ceremony.”
