Zamba Returns to Make a Run at 6th Op Pro Title
Landlocked in Florida, Frieda Zamba examined her frequent flyer mileage and figured . . .
“Heck, why not go do the Op Pro,” said Zamba, who left her home in Flagler Beach, Fla., two days ago for Huntington Beach.
The five-time winner at the Op Pro surfing championships made another appearance Sunday, with familiar results.
She easily won her quarterfinal heat to reach Saturday’s semifinals, joining heat winners Nea Post and Eve Allerton of Huntington Beach.
Zamba’s record at the pier is second to none. Her five titles is two more than men’s record-holder Tom Curren of Santa Barbara.
Can she make it a sixth?
“It wouldn’t bum me out a whole lot if I didn’t win,” she said. “I’ve done well here in the past. I just hope I can pull another one out.”
A four-time world champion, Zamba left the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ tour in 1989. She ran a surf shop in Florida and continued to compete in a handful of events, including the Op Pro, which she won in 1990 and ’91.
“I was burned out on the tour,” she said. “I like my lifestyle now. We have a good business with the surf shop. You don’t have to be competing to be happy.”
Zamba hardly missed a beat in her first heat. She scored a 7.1 out of a possible 10 on her opening wave, added an 8.5 on her third and finished with 26.17 points, 7.9 more than second-place Tricia Gill of Newport Beach, who also advanced to the semifinals.
This was Zamba’s first trip to Huntington Beach since the 1991 Op Pro, and her first women’s contest in two years.
“I surfed in a couple men’s events back home,” she said. “I’ve pretty much been landlocked back in Florida.
“I haven’t been traveling and the waves back there (Florida) have been pretty small.”
Op officials had invited Zamba to surf for Team USA in a specialty event last summer, but she missed the entry deadline.
“I was bummed,” she said. “I heard they (the U.S. team) won.”
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Op Junior: Wyatt Simmons’ bid to become the only Orange County surfer to reach the junior amateur semifinals fell short by thirty-four hundredths of a point.
Simmons, of Huntington Beach, needed a 4.92 score on his last semifinal wave to pass second-place Carlos Cabrerro of Puerto Rico.
Simmons caught a small wave with a few seconds left in his heat, threw a quick maneuver and received a 4.57.
Carlsbad’s Chris Strother won the heat despite being called for an interference penalty for cutting off Cabrerro. Both surfers advanced to the finals along with Kalani Robb of Haleiwa, Hawaii, and Brian Doonan of San Diego.
No county surfer has won the junior amateur title in its five-year history.
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Prize money: The purse for the junior amateur competition is $2,500 in scholarships. The women’s purse is $7,500.
The women’s semifinals are scheduled for 8 a.m. Saturday, and the finals at 11 a.m. The Op Junior final is scheduled for noon Saturday.
Op Notes
Competition resumes at 7 a.m. today with 32 first-round heats in the men’s trials. Among those scheduled to compete are Huntington Beach’s Jeff Deffenbaugh, Laguna Beach’s Hans Hagen, Mission Viejo’s Donovan Frankenreiter, Huntington Beach’s Bud Llamas, Laguna Niguel’s Cordell Miller and San Juan Capistrano’s Chris Drummy.
The top-seeded surfers won’t compete until Thursday’s third round. One of the more interesting matchups is in third-round Heat 5, where defending world-champion Kelly Slater and Richie Collins, 1989 Op champion, will be joined by two surfers advancing out of Round 2.