Surfing-California looks to crown first world surf champion since 1990

By Lincoln Feast

(Reuters) - California has a great chance to crown a first homegrown world surfing champion in more than 30 years when Griffin Colapinto and Caitlin Simmers take part in the World Surf League (WSL) finals near San Clemente over the next couple of weeks.

Simmers goes into the one-day, winner-takes-all competition after a dominant year on the nine-stop professional world tour where she earned top seeding ahead of 2023 champion and Paris Olympics gold medallist Caroline Marks.

The 18-year-old from Oceanside, less than 30km from the Lower Trestles venue, was a sensation in just her second year on tour, racking up three wins including an epoch-shifting victory at Hawaii's dangerous Pipeline.

On the men's side, San Clemente's Colapinto will be second seed behind Hawaiian John John Florence, having finished in the same position at the 2023 finals.

But free from a niggling hip injury which hindered him a year ago, and hot off a win at the last event in Fiji, the 26-year-old will probably never have a better chance to clinch the title than at his home break.

While both Brazil's Filipe Toledo, who won in 2022 and 2023, and Florida-raised Marks have both moved to San Clemente, California has not had a homegrown world champion since Tom Curren won his third title in 1990.

"Caty has a chance, obviously, and from right there, 30 minutes away in Oceanside, it would be huge," said Mitchell Salazar, a former world-class surfer now commentator.

"It would be even bigger if both Californians win - if Griffin wins and Caitlin wins, it's really symbolic, and especially knowing that this is the last finals here for at least the moment because it's going to be in Fiji next year, it would be massive."

Finals day is set to be held sometime between Sept. 6-14 depending on conditions with mostly small waves forecast at what is the high-performance surfing capital of southern California.

The format sees the fifth and four seeds facing off, with the winner to face the third seed and so on until a best of three match-up with the top seed, giving Simmers and Florence a clear advantage.

Brazil has dominated the men's world championship in recent years, winning seven of the last 10 titles.

But with Toledo having taken a year off for his mental health and three-times champion Gabriel Medina failing to make the final five, their sole hope is fifth-ranked Italo Ferreira.

Australia is counting on last year's runner-up Ethan Ewing or Paris Olympics silver medallist Jack Robinson in the men's competition, while fourth-seeded Molly Picklum is their only contender in the women's final.

(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)