Newport Beach’s Tyler Gunter earns runner-up finish at Jack’s Pro surf event in Huntington Beach

One hundred and twenty-eight men’s surfers got together on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier to surf from Thursday through Sunday, which sounds like a typical weekend.

The difference was that the 128 surfers were competing in the Jack’s Pro, which attracted pro surfers from all over California, Hawaii, Brazil and Florida, among other locales.

By early Sunday afternoon, the number was whittled down to two — Newport Beach’s Tyler Gunter and Hawaii’s Keanu Asing — left to battle it out for title in the World Surf League Qualifying Series event.

When it was over, Asing, who spent three seasons on the Championship Tour, beat Gunter with a two-wave score of 12.60 to Gunter’s 10.50, taking home prize money of $2,500, with Gunter earning $1,500.

Asing’s 7.17 score in the first half of the 30-minute final established the tone for the heat, leaving Gunter to chase scores. He needed a seven-point score of his own in the final 10 minutes, but the right wave never came.

Nevertheless, Gunter’s performance over the weekend was big for him moving forward in his career. It marked just the second time he has reached a final in a Qualifying Series event, the first time in a man-on-man final heat.

“It means everything,” said Gunter, 22. “I feel I’ve learned so much about myself the last couple of days and this is exactly how I wanted to start the season. Just to give myself the confidence to know that I can make it to the finals and win these man-on-man heats, it has me so stoked.”

In order to reach the final, he had to advance through five heats, and he put up some big scores along the way. Twice he had a wave score in the eight-point range, and three other times in the seven-point range.

And in his quarterfinal heat, he was matched up against his good friend, John Mel. Gunter admitted that surfing against a good friend is a little nerve-wracking, but there was no trash talking in the water.

“No, we talked a little bit, reminiscing about doing contests out here when we were in the amateurs,” he said. “I mean, I love surfing heats against my friends but I think I get more nervous surfing against them than I would somebody that’s on tour or that’s been on tour. When you’re going up against one of your best friends, you just want to beat them that much more.”

Gunter was going to face a former tour surfer in the final no matter what. In the other semifinal, Asing was matched up against Huntington Beach’s Brett Simpson, the former two-time US Open champ who spent six seasons on the Championship Tour.

Asing outpointed Simpson 12.66-12.10. Simpson needed a 4.5 in the waning minutes, but the right wave didn’t develop.

For Simpson, the event took on a whole new meaning. Now 37, Simpson was the USA Surfing national team coach who coached the U.S. team in the Olympic Games in Japan last year. Dozens of surfers in the water over the weekend were kids he’s coached at one time or another, and then there was all the time he spent in the tent as an analyst for the WSL’s streaming broadcast of the event.

“I was just like, I want to compete, have fun,” Simpson said of his decision to surf in the event. “I’m not going to chase the qualifiers, I’ll do some events if they’re local. But I still surf a lot so, why not?”

Simpson might get an argument from some of the surfers he knocked out of the event, but then again, it’s part of the development for budding pro surfers.

“Sometimes I was feeling like, I’m taking my guys out,” he said. “But at the end of the day, they’re going to get where they need to go, they’re going to learn just as much if I beat them or someone else beats them, or if they go on to win, that’s the name of the game.”

In the women’s final, Sawyer Lindblad of San Clemente outlasted Florida’s Zoe Benedetto, 13.96-9.17. The contest featured 40 surfers. Bella Kenworthy of Dana Point and Ella McCaffray of Cardiff by the Sea both reached the semifinals and placed equal-third.

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