It may be days away from a winner being crowned at the US Open of Surfing, but for one San Clemente surfer, Monday morning’s action marked a massive victory.
For all the other surfers who traveled from around globe to compete, advancing out of the early-round heats means they get to compete another day. But for San Clemente’s Cole Houshmand, it solidified the rising star’s spot to compete next year against the globe’s best competitive surfers on the prestigious World Surf League World Tour.
Friends, family and fans showed up early Monday morning to mark the major milestone for the local athlete’s pro surfing dream, cheering for and congratulating Houshmand as he emerged from the water with a big smile splashed across his face.
“It was crazy. I couldn’t sleep the past three nights, I knew I had to make one heat,” Houshmand, 22, said. “I had a lot of thoughts in my head. I tried to keep calm and I pulled it off. It’s been my dream since I started competing to make the World Tour. It’s been my lifelong goal, I’ve been working toward it forever.”
Houshmand is the No. 1 ranked surfer on the Challenger Series, the sport’s minor leagues and the path to making the World Surf League’s championship tour, which features the top 32 male surfers. The US Open of Surfing is the fourth of six stops on the Challenger Series.
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Fellow San Clemente surfer and current World Tour surfer Griffin Colapinto was on the sand alongside several others who traveled north to Huntington Beach to watch the nail-biting moment, when Houshmand locked in his heat win with a 7.33 score using his beefy stature to throw big spray on three huge turns toward shore.
“It’s the best thing ever. We always knew he could do it. This year, he clicked in and he’s going to be the biggest surfer on tour,” said Colapinto, who is going to be competing for a world title at Lower Trestles, south…
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