Mar 5

Mar 5 Griffin Colapinto wins the 'Simpo Series' in Huntington Beach

Last Tuesday, Brett Simpson and USA Surf Coach Ryan Simmons pulled together a crew to run a scrimmage in Huntington Beach. Not expecting much in the way of surf, the boys were pleased to find a fun little bank and sunny skies all morning. Timing of this get-together couldn’t have been better as a few of the Olympic hopefuls are hitting the road for the next few weeks to surf in a series of important events for making cuts that will be taking place across all divisions of the WSL.

The “Simpo Series” event featured CT surfers, Kolohe Andino, Griffin Colapinto, and Jake Marshall, as well as most of San Clemente’s 2% squad, and a few other CA based hammers like Taro Watanabe, Levi Slawson and Nolan Rapoza.

After a trials heat of U16 guys surfed off for a spot in the main event against some of USA’s top talent, the comp got underway in fun 2 to 3 foot conditions and morphed throughout the day, showing many different faces and offering sections for lots of explosive surfing. You can go back and watch the live webcast via The Couch Surfing Show that Joe and Noah Alani have been putting together on their IG here.

Some notes on the day:

Jett Schilling’s surfboard flew out of the truck on the freeway at 6am. Ouch.
San Clemente underground grom, Luke Wyler, showed up late, but was able to get through his heat with a huge forehand carve.
Kade Matson posted the highest heat total of the event. Somewhere in the 18+ points.
Cole Houshmann earned “performer of the day” with a crazy air.
Cola Bros final was eventful. Crosby had Griffin on the ropes until the dying seconds when Griffin clinched it.