ANDINO WINS FIRST WSL

1/9/15: Yesterday Kolohe Andino won the first ever Wold Surf League event at Huntington Beach Pier, the Shoe City Pro. It was only a QS 1,000 (that’s what they call WQS 1 stars now) but the cream of the crop of American surfers showed up and few internationals too. Riding his Matt Biolos shaped board Kolohe defeated Brasilian Ian Gouveia in the final. Kind of classic considering Dino Andino and Fabio Gouveia surely had some man-on-man battles in their day. They contest coincided with the end of a two week flat spell that finally saw some chest/head high waves show up to the California coast. Kolohe had this to say about the win, ““I’m stoked to win. This event was really good for me, it just gave me that confident feeling on my board and put me back in a competitive mindset after a little break,” explained Kolohe. “When I was younger I used to do events every weekend and I felt like I would get into a really good rhythm, so that’s kind of what I wanted to do here (WORLDSURFLEAGUE.COM).”

Also, congrats to …Lost surfboard riders Griffin Colapinto (equal 3rd), Ian Crane (equal 5th) and Taylor Clark (equal 5th).

Photo: worldsurfleague.com

Photo: Kurt Steinmetz/worldsurfleague.com