Local shredders Bailey Turner, Parker Cohn win titles at Jack’s Surfboards Pro
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Bailey Turner and Parker Cohn are at very different points in their surfing careers.
Turner, who turned 17 earlier this month, is a Huntington Beach High School student who is seen by many as a future star in women’s surfing. Cohn, a Newport Beach resident who turns 27 in October, is himself a former junior standout who has grinded on the World Surf League’s Qualifying Series for years.
They now have at least one thing in common.
Both were triumphantly carried off the beach Sunday after earning women’s and men’s event victories at the Vans Jack Surfboards Pro Presented by 805.
It’s the first QS victory in the career of each surfer and an excellent way to start out the season. Both Turner and Cohn earned a $9,500 check and 4,000 QS points for capturing the win on the side of the Huntington Beach Pier.
“It’s my first time ever making the finals,” Turner said. “To be able to win at home, it’s really cool.”
Turner was patient at her home break in the 30-minute finals heat against Reid Van Wagoner, a 16-year-old from Carlsbad.
She held priority and waited for more than 10 minutes in the middle of the heat, before executing successive good rides — scoring 5.33 and 5.37 — to surge into the lead in the two-best wave format.
“I feel like usually, I’m not that patient,” Turner said. “Usually, I just try to catch waves, but I kind of realized that in surfing you have to be on the best waves. I just try to take some deep breaths and wait for a wave.”
Turner ended up with 11 points to win the finals heat in the small waves. Van Wagoner finished with a score of 10.16.
Bailey Turner, who has three Surfers’ Hall of Fame members in the family with her father Ryan, uncle Timmy and grandmother Michele, is making plenty of waves on her own. She is coming off winning gold in the girls’ Under-16 Division at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships last December in Peru.
A recent Challenger Series qualifier, Turner won four successive heats Sunday, including four-surfer round of 16 and round of eight heats. She then topped 2024 event winner Kirra Pinkerton of San Clemente by a score of 8.67 to 7.07 in the semifinals.
“Keep it pretty mellow, and not put too much pressure on myself,” she said of her future plans. “Just go out and have fun. That’s usually what I do best.”
Cohn did the same in his final heat, topping Levi Slawson of Encinitas by a score of 11.60 to 10.84.
Slawson, last year’s U.S. Open of Surfing winner in Huntington Beach, had one last wave in the final minute of the heat that fell short with a score of 6.17.
After the final buzzer, the emotion began to pour out of Cohn in the water.
“I haven’t won a contest since I was like 17 or 18,” he said. “I’m 26 now, and man, there’s so many highs and lows to this sport. It’s just incredible to be sitting here and see the work pay off … To stand here right now at this age, on this day, it’s like a dream come true.”
He started off the finals heat solidly, with scores of 4.93 and 4.40 on two of his first three scoring waves. But it was a ride of 6.67 later in the heat that ultimately started moving Cohn toward the victory.
Cohn said a shark sighting off the coast of Huntington Beach later Thursday, which canceled Friday’s surfing competition and caused a more compressed schedule over the weekend, might not have been a bad thing for him.
“I think it kind of helped me not have to go home and get nervous, just stay locked in to a focused mind set for two days straight,” Cohn said. “You only have to catch two waves to win each heat. If you really make it simple for yourself, then it’s a lot easier.”
He won his round of 16 heat Sunday and finished second in his round of eight heat to advance. Cohn then edged Lucas Cassity of Mexico, 11.24 to 10.80, in the semifinals.
Though his home break is just a bit south in Newport Beach, he said winning an event in Huntington Beach made things even more special.
“They call it Surf City USA for a reason,” Cohn said. “The whole city is filled with good surfers, and there’s just a really strong surf culture here. Winning here, I couldn’t think of anything cooler.”
One of those good surfers from Huntington Beach, Turner, won the women’s final just prior to Cohn breaking through.
