Like many young surfers who grow up in wave-rich Southern California, Griffin Colapinto always dreamed of one day claiming a world champion title.
“I love surfing and I had the belief I could be the best in the world,” Colapinto said on a recent day during a rare break at home in Orange County between traveling to surf contests across the globe. “I’m still holding onto that.”
Colapinto, who grew up in the quaint surf town of San Clemente, is about to get his chance. The surf world converges next month at nearby Lower Trestles at San Onofre State Beach for the Rip Curl WSL Finals and he is among the five male surfers who made the cut for the World Surf League title competition.
Colapinto’s stellar surfing this year has also helped him lock in a spot for the 2024 Olympics, to be held at the bombing Teahupoʻo in Tahiti, as the sport for the second time rides into the Summer Games.
But first, the WSL finals, a one-day, winner-take-all event held on the best day of waves between Sept. 8 and 16, and a chance for surf fans to watch up close the world’s best battle on the cobblestone beach Colapinto calls his backyard.
And if Colapinto is able to beat out the other competitors, he’ll be the first surfing world champion from California in more than 30 years.
It’s a moment the 25-year-old has come painfully close to in recent years, falling just shy of the cut off in points to make the Final 5 the past two years.
“Everyone’s got their own timing,” Colapinto said in an online interview following a recent event in Tahiti. “I just have to trust the universe.”
In the surf world, Colapinto is a well-known fixture who has a relaxed, playful style on land, but a fierce way on the waves that has helped him carve his name among the world’s best – this year ranked No. 2 behind current world champion Filipe Toledo, a Brazilian who has also called San Clemente home the past decade.
Colapinto had an early start into the surf world. He was just…
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