Surfing’s big showdown will once again be at Lower Trestles next year.
The World Surf League announced the world champions will be decided in 2024 at the famed surf spot just south of San Clemente. The last three finals have been held there, bringing the world’s best surfers and a big buzz to the region.
The finals are a winner-takes-all contest where the top five men and top five women go head-to-head for the world title. For next year, the waiting period will be Sept. 6 to 14, “which is the ideal time of year for favorable Southern Hemisphere swells at one of the most high-performance waves in the world,” WSL officials said in their announcement of the upcoming season’s schedule.
This year’s finals, held on Sept. 9, shattered the record for the most-watched day of professional surfing in WSL history, officials said.
There were 10.7 million video views on the single day, surpassing the previous year by 29%.
Ahead the contest, WSL delivered 25 million video-on-demand views, marking a 58% increase from the previous year, the Santa Monica-based company said.
Having the event in San Clemente’s backyard at San Onofre State Beach “solidifies our position at the center of the surfing universe,” said the beach town’s mayor, Chris Duncan.
The city, this year, ramped up its efforts to promote and embrace the event, holding a community party to kick off the waiting period, a press conference and autograph signing at the pier with the athletes and a champions’ parade down the town’s main drag to the beach with men’s winner Brazilian Filipe Toledo and women’s champ Caroline Marks, of Florida, who both now live in San Clemente.
“I’m really proud of the city and the efforts to partner with the WSL to ensure the finals continue to take place again in San Clemente, where it should be taking place – where we have a thriving, young surf community and a history of engagement in the surfing world,” Duncan said. “This isn’t…
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