Joe Surf: A solid day for San Clemente

Here in Huntington Beach on Thursday and Friday, they will be celebrating a Guinness World Record involving a very big (42 feet) surfboard.

Last week, though, it was all about the very big waves.

The World Surf League held the Todos Santos Challenge last Sunday off the coast of Baja California thanks to an El Niño swell that resulted in epic waves that reached 30-40 feet.

Four San Clemente natives surfed in the 24-man event, and all four reached the semifinals — brothers Greg and Rusty Long, Nate Fletcher and Dane Gudauskas.

Fletcher and Gudauskas failed to advance to the final heat, but the Long brothers both did — Greg won his heat, and Rusty finished second in his heat behind Australian Josh Kerr.

In the final, Greg put up an 8.67 on his first wave, the best-scoring wave by anyone in the final. But his second scoring wave was just a 1.50, allowing Kerr’s 7.87 and 8.20 to be enough to take the win. Rusty finished sixth in the six-man final, managing to catch only one wave.

The win for Kerr was surprising in more ways than one. Kerr is not known as a big-wave surfer in the same way the Long brothers are. He’s known more for his aerials and is currently on the WSL’s World Championship Tour, which highlights big moves on shortboards.

Kerr almost didn’t surf at all, dealing with Green Card issues. Now living in California, Kerr said he had to practically beg to get a one-day pass and surf the event.

“I didn’t have any expectations,” Kerr said. “I just wanted to surf the waves with all these guys. To walk away with a win, I feel like one of those dogs with his head out the car window. I was smiling the whole time I was paddling around in the final.”

Kerr has never won an event on the WCT, and his last event win at any level was in 2010 in the WSL’s Qualifying Series.

“To get a win here is so special,” Kerr said. “I literally haven’t won a contest for probably about five years, so I don’t even know what this feeling of winning is going through my body right now. I’m kind of tripping.”

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Kanoa places fifth in world

Huntington Beach local Kanoa Igarashi finished in equal-fifth place in the Ericiera World Junior Championships in Portugal last week.

Igarashi reached the quarterfinal round, where he was matched up with Brazil’s Lucas Silveira. Igarashi put up a two-wave score of 16.17, including a 9.00 on his second wave.

But Silveira more than matched it with a 9.20 on his second wave for a two-wave total of 17.60 to win the heat. Silveira went on to win his semifinal heat and the finals heat to win the whole event.

Igarashi, though, has plenty to look forward to. He will be a rookie on the WCT — most prestigious surf tour in the world — when it begins in Australia in March.