Gallery • 2 Photos

Victoria Duprat

Once a year, Southern California is lucky enough to host the largest all-female surf competition in the world. SuperGirl Surf Pro hosts over 100 competitors, with more than 10,000 visitors each time. Spreading across almost all of The Strand boardwalk, the event ensures that all your needs at a surf competition are satisfied. 

When you walk down the stairs to get to the event location, you will find a band of pop-up tents giving out ranges of free items to promote local surf and beach business. Some of the sponsors include SunBum, Pura Vida, and Celcius. From stickers to Polaroid photos, it is all free! Aside from the surfing, there is a full-day music festival going on right next to the competition. This year, artists who performed on the stage include Loren Grey, Bea Miller, and Sean Kingston. In the past, artists like Smash Mouth and The Offspring have sung.

The three-day-long tournament starts with the first round on Friday, with 104 girls starting, with ages varying a wide range. Each one of them gets a chance to show off their skills, then eight are eliminated. This segment of the competition lasts four rounds, each eliminating more surfers from the pool. In the end, almost all of the surfers are eliminated, leaving eight to progress to the quarterfinals. From there, half of those girls are extreme enough to go into the semifinals including Alyssa Spencer, Zoe Benedetto, Sawyer Lindblad, and Keala Tomoda-Bannert. From there, they go head to head in mini surf battles or “heats”, two to advance to the finals. 

This year, Alyssa Spencer and Sawyer Lindblad made it to the end making sure that either way, America takes the gold. According to the Super Girl Surf Pro Live, both Spencer and Lindblad were equal in points going into the finals, both getting nines in the previous rounds, “Two nines, looking for perfect tens.” to win. Spencer, an Encinitas local, started off the round. With the comment, “She did not play that safe at all, which is what she has to do.”She got a score of 8.5, making her mark on the leaderboard. Going back out, showing the judges all the tricks, she scored a 5.53 marking her up to a 14.33 score, making Lindblad work for the crown. 

In Lindblad’s start, Super Girl Surf Pro Live stated, “Coming in hot on her forehand, she gets the float ology and then generates the speed back on the open section, and then similar to what we saw before releases the fins.” Lindblad gets a 7.93 and needs a 6.41 to get the lead. The battles have their marks, but when the timer ends, it’s Spencer who claims the title with a 16.03 and Lindblad gets a 14.3. “This is the first time that a California Native has walked away with bicoastal capes.” Encinitas had taken the win.

The competition didn’t only make room for older girls who went for the gold, but also girls from this very school, San Dieguito Academy, as well. Freshmen Riley Crescenzo and Victoria Duprat surfed on both, longboards and shortboards. Duprat, who made it to the third heat for short boarding, says she prefers it and practices every day. Shortboard scoring judges how long your ride is on the wave, and how high of a risk your moves are. Crescenzo prefers longboarding, which is judged off of cross-steps and finishing hang fives and tens (a certain move, involving hanging your toes off of the board).

This competition plays a big role for girls in sports, opening doors and opportunities for young athletes who want a chance to go big. Duprat states, “It just really inspires a lot of girls to like, get into surfing and just sports in general. And it empowers everybody as females just to, follow your dreams.” Crescenzo says “It’s really inspiring to see how far surfing has come, especially for girls. And it’s cool to see that they have a whole contest dedicated to female surfers. And, yeah, it’s inspirational.” This competition comes around once a year in mid-September, putting on a great spectacle, and showing that girls are just as good too.