Andino Wins WSL Shoe City Pro

By Andrea Swayne

Kolohe Andino of San Clemente became the first ever World Surf League event winner at the WSL Shoe City Pro QS1000, Jan. 8 on the south side of the Huntington Beach pier.

Andino blasted through the event with an unbroken string of heat wins to face Ian Gouveia in the final where he bested the Brazilian 15.56 to12.73.

“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,” said Andino in a post event WSL interview. “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. It was also cool to compete against guys like Griffin (Colapinto) and (Ian) Crane and Nate (Yeomans) from San Clemente who I surf with all the time. Everyone was just pushing me super hard this event and I had to try my very hardest to win.”

A number of other surfers from the San Clemente/Dana Point area also made their WSL QS season debut at the event—Griffin Colapinto, Nate Yeomans, Ian Crane, Josh Benjoya and Cody Canzoneri.

Colapinto had the next highest finish among the local crew, making it to the semis where his campaign came to an end with Andino beating him 16.50 to 11.16.

The event kicked off the new season and was the first World Qualifying Series event to use the Association of Surfing Professionals’ (ASP) new name—World Surf League (WSL).

RESULTS

Final: Kolohe Andino (USA) 15.56 def. Ian Gouveia (BRA) 12.73

SEMIFINAL:

Heat 1: Kolohe Andino (USA) 16.50, Griffin Colapinto (USA) 11.16
Heat 2: Ian Gouveia (BRA) 11.00, Cory Arrambide (USA) 8.97

QUARTERFINAL:

Heat 1: Kolohe Andino (USA) 13.66, Ian Crane (USA) 8.50
Heat 2: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 15.47, Josh Benjoya (USA) 12.00
Heat 3: Ian Gouveia (BRA) 17.23, Taylor Clark (USA) 16.47
Heat 4: Cory Arrambide (USA) 14.73, Colin Moran (USA) 11.24

ROUND 4:

Heat 1: Kolohe Andino (USA) 16.00, Josh Benjoya (USA) 15.44, Nathan Yeomans (USA) 15.03, Nolan Rapoza (USA) 9.44

Heat 2: Griffin Colapinto 13.53, Ian Crane 10.83, Jake Davis 9.90, Kirk Weissinger 6.70

Heat 3: Ian Gouveia (BRA) 17.37, Cory Arrambide (USA) 12.17, Kilian Garland 11.90, Jake Marshall (USA) 11.43

Heat 4: Colin Moran 12.84, Taylor Clark 11.80, Cody Canzoneri 11.33, Jean Da Silva 10.44

ROUND 3:

Heat 1: Kolohe Andino (USA) 13.60, Kirk Weissinger (USA) 10.50, Noah Collins (USA) 7.83, Danny Berk (USA) 7.10

Heat 2: Nolan Rapoza (USA) 12.50, Jake Davis (USA) 12.33, Derek Peters (USA) 9.90, Ryland Rubens (USA) 8.47

Heat 3: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 13.57, Nathan Yeomans (USA) 11.77, Makai MacNamara (HAW) 11.50, Chase Wilson (USA) 10.10

Heat 4: Ian Crane (USA) 12.37, Josh Benjoya (USA) 11.40, Luke Marks (USA) 8.20, Nate Dorman (USA) 5.53

Heat 5: Ian Gouveia (BRA) 15.87, Cody Canzoneri (USA) 13.54, Jake Kelley (USA) 11.07, Quinn McCrystal (USA) 8.97

Heat 6: Kilian Garland (USA) 12.33, Colin Moran (USA) 12.33, Kalani David (HAW) 6.60, Jamie Meistrell (USA) 5.30

Heat 7: Taylor Clark (USA) 14.90, Jake Marshall (USA) 13.17, Jacob Szekely (USA), Rob Kelly (USA) 10.37

Heat 8: Jean Da silva (BRA) 14.27, Cory Arrambide (USA) 13.37, Mikey McCabe (USA) 10.74, Johnny Noris 9.20 (USA)