Joe Surf: Simpson ready to prove himself at U.S. Open

While most of the world’s best surfers have been traveling the globe and competing for the ultimate prize of being crowned world champion, Brett Simpson has been watching, waiting, working.

Huntington Beach’s Simpson is not on the World Surf League’s World Championship Tour this season for the first time in seven years, but at 31, he’s confident he’ll get back.

In the meantime, he’s been surfing in H.B. and enjoying his second child. His wife Danielle gave birth to son Kobe just a few weeks ago, and the couple also has 21/2-year-old daughter Paigelynn.

Simpson, though, will get those competitive juices flowing again in a couple of weeks when the U.S. Open of Surfing returns to Huntington July 23-31. Simpson certainly will be in the mix to win the $100,000 first-place prize.

Simpson won back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 2009 and 2010, and knows the south side of the Huntington Pier as well as anybody.

“I will have some of the best beach-break surfers in the world in town so it’s always going to be a tough task,” Simpson said. “But realistically I just have to focus on myself and what I know I can do well at the waves I surf often.

“I’m not sure if I did well it would be much of a surprise after the successes I’ve had out there in the past, but it’s more about me making heats and getting that feeling back.”

That “feeling” is what Simpson has been searching for. He’s surfed in four Qualifying Series (QS) contests this year and hasn’t done well. But it’s important he gets things going in the right direction soon because the QS is the avenue back to the WCT.

There are 51 QS contests throughout the year, but only the top-five contest results are counted toward qualifying, so picking and choosing the events is crucial. The top 10 QS surfers at the end of the year qualify for next year’s WCT.

Of the 51 contests, only six are called “prime” events. In those, the winner gets 10,000 points, more than any of the other contests. Simpson missed the first prime event in Ballito, South Africa, a couple of weeks ago to be with his wife for the birth of Kobe.

The next prime event is — you guessed it — the U.S. Open.

“I expect to have my best result of the year, which isn’t saying much but I know what I’m capable of out there and I’m always confident surfing where I do so often,” he said.

Simpson has kept a close eye on this year’s WCT, and while he’s missed the competition, there are some good things that have come out of it.

“I see some of these close calls and decisions to run the event or not and I find myself saying I don’t miss it much,” Simpson said. “But when the surfing is on and I’m watching I still feel the drive to get back there and prove to myself that I belong there.”

Being able to avoid many of the long airplane rides that come with being on the WCT has allowed Simpson to heal and strengthen his back, which has given him trouble in recent years.

“I feel good, the time off has helped, but also training smarter not so much harder. The part that kills me is the airplanes,” he said.

“Yeah, I miss the level of being at the CTs the most, always pushing yourself with the best, although I feel I’m still right there with them. I haven’t let down any, I just have to grind it out on the QS if I want to have another sniff at it. That’s the sacrifice I’m going to have to make.”

Kanoa continues to battle

Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi surfed in the J-Bay Open last week at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, the sixth contest on the World Championship Tour, and once again showed flashes of his potential but was unable to break through and get deep into the contest.

Igarashi, 18, finished an equal-13th for the fifth WCT contest in a row; he finished equal-9th in the first contest of the season. Igarashi, though, has nothing to hang his head about.

In Round 1, he was matched up against John John Florence, currently ranked No. 3 in the world, and Keanu Asing, both from Hawaii, and Igarashi came out on top.

Igarashi’s two-wave score of 15.64 bested Florence’s 13.24 and Asing’s 12.60 to advance directly to Round 3, while Florence and Asing had to surf in elimination Round 2.

In Round 3, Igarashi found himself up against none other than Mick Fanning, the Aussie who is being watched like no other surfer at J-Bay. It was Fanning who was attacked by a shark in the championship heat last year at J-Bay, resulting in the cancellation of the final heat.

Igarashi posted an 8.50 early but Fanning countered with an 8.87. Fanning then put it away with a 9.50 late in the heat and eliminated Igarashi, 18.37 to 14.60.

Igarashi, though, will get his turn in the spotlight in the next couple of weeks in the U.S. Open in Huntington, surely one of the favorites to win it surfing with home-wave advantage.

Conlogue bears all

Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue heads into the U.S. Open later this month ranked No. 1 in the world in the WCT standings, but that’s not Conlogue’s only claim to fame these days.

Conlogue is one of the models for ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue, her photo shoot taking place in Tahiti. ESPN offered a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot.

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JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.