USA Reclaims Team Gold

USA Reclaims Team Gold

Huntington Beach, California, USA, November 3, 2019 – After eight days of world-class surfing from the top 342 U-18 surfers from 44 nations, Team USA earned the Team Gold Medal at the 2019 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship presented by Visit Huntington Beach.

Team USA was propelled by an impressive five individual medals, highlighted by a Gold in the Boys U-18 Division for Dimitri Poulos.

“The support of USA has been insane!” said Poulos. “Everyone is down on the beach screaming for me.”

Team USA last won the Gold in 2017, nearly repeating as World Champions in 2018, but narrowly coming up short behind a first-time Gold Medal performance from Team Japan. Team USA’s return to the top of global junior surfing in 2019 is their third Gold, first winning the Team Title in 2015.

Team Hawaii followed USA with the Silver Medal, riding a wave of momentum behind the individual Gold Medal performances of Jackson Bunch in Boys U-16 and Gabriela Bryan in Girls U-18.

“It’s pretty awesome to win gold,” said Bunch. “I was reviewing the past champions of this event and I couldn’t believe how many people on (the World Surf League Championship) tour had won this event.

“I am super psyched to win it and hopefully I can be like one of them.”

Bryan said, “Two gold medals for Hawaii is super awesome. It’s definitely one of the best days of my life. Seeing Jackson out there dropping nines motivated me to keep it going for Hawaii.”

Noah Lia Klapp led Team Germany to eighth overall with two individual medals across both Girls Divisions. Klapp took the Gold Medal first in Girls U-16 and then followed up with the Bronze in Girls U-18 only minutes later.

“It feels great to see all the hard work pay off,” said Klapp. “Team Germany is the best team that I could ask for. They’re amazing.”

The final day of competition kicked off on the south side of Huntington Beach Pier with a decrease in swell, but classic, clean conditions to determine the World Champions.

After a morning of all Main Event Finals and Repechage Finals, the competition arrived at the highly anticipated Grand Finals to write the next chapter of the history books and identify the future stars of the sport.

The Girls U-16 final was first to award medals featuring Germany’s Klapp, USA’s Zoe Benedetto and defending Gold Medalist Caitlin Simmers, and Hawaii’s Betty Lou Sakura Johnson.

After Rachel Presti earned Germany’s first-ever ISA Junior Surfing Gold Medal in the 2018 edition, Klapp continued the emergence of German surfing in the event and performed in the Final to take the Gold.

USA’s Benedetto followed with the Silver and Hawaii’s Sakura Johnson with the Bronze. Simmers’ attempt to defend her Title came up short, as she was unable to find waves with high scoring potential during the heat, earning the Copper.

The Boys U-18 Final continued and Hawaii’s Bunch put on a show of domination. In a heat where most competitors were struggling to find waves, Bunch was in tune with the ocean and matched the event-high heat total with 17 points, showing an array of rail and aerial maneuvers.

USA’s Taj Lindblad trailed in a distant second place for the Silver Medal, with Portugal’s Afonso Antunes just behind with the Bronze, and USA’s Ryan Huckabee with the Copper.

Next up was the Girls U-18 Division where Hawaii’s Gabriela Bryan got off to a slow start. Bryan found her rhythm later in the heat and her last two wave scores were her best, leading her to a Gold Medal.

Team Japan’s Minami Nonaka took the Silver Medal, Germany’s Klapp earned the Bronze for her second medal of the day, and Japan’s Sara Wakita took the Copper.

The Boys U-18 Final capped off the day of competition and Team USA’s Dimitri Poulos sealed USA’s spot atop the team podium.

Poulos took the Gold in his first participation in the event as a last-minute replacement, finishing with a fairy-tale ending for USA.

Mexico’s Alan Cleland followed with the Silver, a historic step for the development of Surfing in Mexico as the country’s first-ever medal in the event.

USA’s Tommy Coleman earned the Bronze and Joh Azuchi finished with the Copper — an excellent three-year run of podium finishes for the Japanese star.

ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:

“The future generation of surfers have once again risen to the occasion and performed on the greatest stage for U-18 surfers. These young World Champions are following the footsteps of many legends before them, paving their own pathway towards stardom, and for some towards the Olympic Games.

“Some of the surfers that competed this week have already placed a foot into the Tokyo 2020 Games with provisional qualification, showcasing the youthful demographic of our sport. If surfing is to be included in future editions of the Games, it is these surfers that we see today with medals that will likely be representing their nations in 2024, 2028, and beyond.”

Results – Click here to view complete results.

Team ranking:
Gold – USA
Silver – Hawaii
Bronze – Japan
Copper – Spain
5 – France
6 – Australia
7 – Portugal
8 – Germany
9 – South Africa
10 – Canada

See full 44 team rankings through link above.

Girls U-16:
Gold – Noah Lia Klapp (GER)
Silver – Zoe Benedetto (USA)
Bronze – Betty Lou Sakura Johnson (HAW)
Copper – Caitlin Simmers (USA)

Boys U-16:
Gold – Jackson Bunch (HAW)
Silver – Taj Lindblad (USA)
Bronze – Afonso Antunes (POR)
Copper – Ryan Huckabee (USA)

Girls U-18:
Gold – Gabriela Bryan (HAW)
Silver – Minami Nonaka (JPN)
Bronze – Noah Lia Klapp (GER)
Copper – Sara Wakita (JPN)

Boys U-18:
Gold – Dimitri Poulos (USA)
Silver – Alan Cleland (MEX)
Bronze – Tommy Coleman (USA)

Pagans in The Wave

Pagans in The Wave

Patrick Landon-Dark and Logan Nicol (Pagans) hit The Wave, Bristol. The newest innovation in land locked surf tech. The boys hopped the border and had an hour on each side of the pool (left and right) tearing the bag out of the reeling conditions.

They give you some honest answers to all the questions you’ve been asking.

Check out the start of the video for their surfing and from 3:20 for their take on the wave.

Stacking clips – UK sessions

Stacking clips – UK sessions

A few highlights as the clocks go back and winter sets in around the UK and Ireland.

Liam Turner just dropped this banger including a few spitting shacks from the North Sea

Levy had big lumpy swell. Highlights were a lot of people swimming and and odd lump. Seb Smart lost his board so if anyone finds it let us know…

Woody New dropped little clip from Lev. Got an unfortunate lip to the head on one..

Thurso had few too in between rainy days..
Ben Larg

Boydey

And of course the wave everyone has ben talking about

Carve Magazine Issue 199

Carve Magazine Issue 199

Carve Surfing Magazine

Carve Magazine Issue 199

New issue is in stores this week and available on the app now for you iPad folk. For next time how about letting the postie take the strain and subscribe?!

Hello you

Our mantra here at Carve has always been: surfing is fun.
So the magazine reflects that as much as possible. Sure we cover serious topics and talk to serious people. The thing that binds us together is a shared love of sliding around in the salt because it’s one of the most fun things you can do. It’s an escape from the stress of life on land. A release from the shackles of gravity. A commune with nature.
If you’re good at it, some can even make it their living — the ultimate in getting paid to do what you love.
Us magazine folk don’t live the glamorous jet-setting lives of pro surfers, sure we travel more than most, admittedly a lot less than we used to.
We are here to document the goings-on in the British, Irish and world surf scene. So in a ‘getting paid to do what you love’ sense we’re also winning.
A small team runs the mag in a compact and bijou family-owned publishing house. We’re ably assisted by freelance photogs and writers all over the shop.
It’s a labour of love bringing you eight mags a year when print media isn’t having the best of times globally. Niche titles, like ours, are surviving because they talk to a distinct crowd, as in you lot, and getting the internet ad dollar together to get good content is tricky for online-only sites when Google and FB rob all the $$$.
So we here. We doing it. Proud to be paper. Print’s not dead. Etc.
The only issue with having a team you can count on the fingers of one hand is if one, or even two, of those fingers gets stomped on you’re in the poop.
Somehow the swirling hand of fate decided that the recent few weeks was a good a time as any for our designer James and my respective mums to pass away suddenly.
When it comes to a kick in the balls that makes it hard to concentrate on work, not to mention feeding and cleaning yourself, it’s a doozy. Of course, the powers that be have freely allowed us all the time we need to sort things out, but mags don’t make themselves.
Bereavement is a personal thing, and no one knows how it will affect them. Suffice to say it leads to a lot of thinking, tears, reflection, depression and in my case, possibly a few too many lovely beers and takeaways.
The central ethos instilled in us from our respective mums is very similar: be kind, follow your dreams.
This might explain why we’re working somewhere that it’s OK to rock up in shorts and flip flops with sand between our toes.
This issue and the last have been created under a cold, grey cloud of loss. It hurts like hell, and it will for a very long time. It’s inevitable when you lose people that are part of your soul.
All we can do is keep on keeping on. Make more magazines. Ride more waves. Make them proud. Remember to smile. Be kind and follow our dreams.

Sharpy
Editor