Nat Young wins Jack’s Surfboards Pro event in Huntington Beach

Go figure.

One hundred and twenty-eight men’s surfers paddled out for the Jack’s Surfboards Pro over the weekend on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier, and when all the heats were finished — 67 in all — the lone surfer standing was the one you might expect.

Santa Cruz’s Nat Young, who surfed on the Championship Tour for five years from 2013-17, outlasted Josh Burke of Barbados in the final to take home the title in the World Surf League’s Qualifying Series 1,000 point event. Young pocketed $2,500 for the victory.

Young reached the final in two CT contests — the Rip Curl Pro Portugal in 2013, and the Fiji Pro in 2014 — and finished as high as No. 8 in the world in 2013. So seeing the 30-year-old goofy-footer maneuver his way through five heats to reach the final, and then win it, was no surprise.

But it didn’t come easily.

Burke was busy in the final heat, riding 11 waves in all, including a flurry that came midway through the heat when Young was sitting on the outside with priority. Burke put up a 6.90 and a 7.60 that left Young needing a big score as the clock ticked below the 10-minute mark.

But with about eight minutes remaining, Young’s patience paid off in the form of a left-hander toward the pier that resulted in a score of 8.25 and put him ahead with a two-wave total of 14.75 to Burke’s 14.50.

The ocean went flat in the remaining minutes, robbing Burke of a chance to regain the lead.

“It definitely took a little resilience,” Young said of his final heat. “[Burke] obviously had some pretty good waves, and one of them was under my priority, and then he used his priority and had that other one. So I was definitely clawing back and that wave came for me. It was a good wave, for sure, and I did what I could and they gave me the score.”

Young hopes the victory is just the beginning.

“This is definitely a good start for me,” Young said. “We have four big events coming up and one of them’s here [the U.S. Open from Sept. 20 through 26] so it’s perfect practice, and hopefully I can carry that momentum toward the goal to make the CT.”

In the women’s final, Oceanside’s Caitlin Simmers, 15, out-pointed San Clemente’s Sawyer Lindblad, 15, with a two-wave score of 15.65 to Lindblad’s 13.70 to take the win and the $2,500 prize in the event that began with 40 surfers.

“Throughout the day I had a lot of stressful heats,” Simmers said. “I wanted the final to be less stressful, but it wasn’t because Sawyer was in it. I’m happy I got a couple, and then the ocean kind of went in my favor because there wasn’t really waves. Usually Huntington is pretty grindy, but this has been so fun. It’s similar to Oceanside, so I like these kinds of waves.”

There were numerous Newport Beach and Huntington Beach surfers on both the men’s and women’s sides, with Newport’s Tyler Gunter finishing the highest on the men’s side at equal-9th. Newport’s Jo Jo Whelan, who like Gunter reached the round of 16, finished equal-13th.

“I wish I could have done better, but I’m stoked with the result I got,” Gunter said. “It’s been 16 months since we’ve had a contest, so to make some heats and get some points is definitely nice … I’m excited for the rest of the year.”

Though there were no contests since early 2020, Gunter was still able to get in the water and improve his game.

“I feel the best I’ve ever felt,” he said. “A year and a half off, it was great to work on everything, and I’m feeling really good, really excited. I approached things differently, tried out lots of different boards with my shaper and get everything dialed in — just worked on airs and parts of my surfing that were on the weaker side. It was nice to not have to worry about contests and just work on my surfing on the whole.”

The highest finish for a local on the women’s side was 14-year-old Sara Freyre of Newport Beach, who reached the quarterfinals and finished equal-fifth, losing only to eventual finalist Lindblad.

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