SAN DIEGO (AP) — Less than two months after surfing’s Olympic debut, the top five women and men have gathered at Lower Trestles in Southern California for the World Surf League’s new one-day, winner-take-all championship.
World titles will be decided on the waves for the first time instead of by the season points standings.
There will also be equal prize money, with each champion earning $200,000 out of the identical $470,000 purses. Organizers will wait for optimum conditions to decide which day the contest will be.
Surfers revere Lower Trestles for its consistent waves as well as its setting.
Lower Trestles is one of several surf breaks between San Onofre State Beach in northern San Diego County and San Clemente Beach in southern Orange County. Surfers named it decades ago after Trestles Bridge that spanned San Mateo Creek.
