California teen Caitlin Simmers makes surfing history as youngest female world champion

Hawaii’s John John Florence and California’s Caitlin Simmers have won the World Surf League finals in Lower Trestles, California. Florence broke a seven-year drought and claimed her third world title. The 18-year-old Simmers became the youngest woman to win the world title.

Florence, 31, and Simmers entered the WSL finals as the highest-ranked players, meaning they lay in wait as the other four competitors in each field went into a best-of-three heat showdown to determine the title.

Florence had to hold off the rampaging Brazilian Italo Ferreira, who had been on a roll all day, knocking out fifth-seeded No. 4 Ewing, No. 3 Robinson and then second-seeded Griffin Colapinto.

The Hawaiian, who has struggled with injuries for years, beat Ferreira in the first heat, only making two waves and posting a total of 15.53, while the 2019 world champion from Brazil recorded a time of 15.33.

After an epic day, Ferreira looked to have run out of fuel in the second heat, losing motivation after Florence opened with a 9.70 which he then added to with an 8.43 to take victory 18.13 to 16.30. It ended Brazil’s ironclad grip on the world title, having won the last five championships in a row.

Australia is still waiting for a new world champion. Eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore last won her title in 2022. Moreover, no Australian has won since 2013, when Mick Fanning took the last of his three titles.

Fanning was in Ethan Ewing’s corner at Lower Trestles, California, for the one-day winner-take-all decision but could not power the Queenslander to victory. Olympic silver medallist Jack Robinson and Molly Picklum were also early casualties.

Australia has ties with Florence, through his Australian wife Lauryn and his newborn son Darwin.

“The last seven years have been so tough, there have been so many injuries and we just had to fight back to get to this position, and then also this new format which is so stressful,” said Florence, who had never reached the decisive top five before.

“I knew since Brazil that I would be number 1, so I thought about it for a long time and I just can’t believe it. My wife, my son, my team, I couldn’t have done it without them, because the injuries and the bad days, there was so much work in the last years to get to this point.”

Simmers surpassed five-time world champion Carissa Moore as the youngest female champion by six days, winning at 18 years, 10 months and 12 days old.

The women’s title came down to the third heat, with reigning world champion and Olympic gold medallist Caroline Marks winning the first heat in a thriller. Simmers dominated the second heat, cementing her top position with two nine-point runs.

In the third heat the duo had few waves: Simmers scored 15.16, while her Olympic teammate and good friend Marks scored only one, a 7.17.

“It means so much, I’ve literally been through all the emotions today and it just feels f***ing crazy,” Simmers said. “I was going to cry in the locker room for 30 minutes before my first heat, I didn’t want that f***ing Caroline to have it all because that f***ing girl wins everything and she’s the hardest person to beat.”

Fourth-seeded Picklum, 21, was knocked out in the first heat of the day by Brazil’s strong-performing Tatiana Weston-Webb.

Ewing was beaten at the buzzer by Ferreira in the men’s opener, unable to improve on his runner-up performance from last year. Ferreira then went to Robinson and really found his rhythm, performing several consecutive lofty air rotations for a two-wave score of 14.57 to edge out the West Australian, who scored 9.94.