Team USA last week in El Salvador won the World Masters Surfing Championship. This was the first title for Team USA, which included Malibu surfer Allen Sarlo.
Anyone who surfs Malibu knows that Sarlo has skills in right-hand point surf. Large or small, Sarlo generates lots of speed and is on top of his game for a guy in his 50s. After 38 years of surfing Malibu, Sarlo knows how to work it from eight inches to eight feet—over the rocks or through the pier.
La Libertad, where the International Surfing Association-hosted event took place, is the Latin American cousin of Malibu's First Point. The two places look almost identical on Google Earth—right point with a lagoon, leading down to a pier. And the two waves also have a similar look and feel, peeling along a sand and cobblestone point. But La Libertad is closer to the source of the same south swells that wrap into Malibu, so the southern cousin is more powerful and "steeper," Sarlo said.
Put those two things together and Sarlo was a danger in the compeitition. Sarlo competed against 16 other surfers in the Grand Kahunas Division (age 50+), with each of the 16 teams putting one surfer into the division. The surf was "three to four feet and beautiful" as the contest began, Sarlo said. He won most of his early heats and advanced to a four-person final.
The surf dropped to approximately one to two feet on the rocks—similar to the conditions for this year's .
"I had a shocker," Sarlo said. "It didn't go as planned."
He placed fourth for a copper medal in his division and third overall in the event. Teammates Tom Curren and Jim Hogan placed first and second.
Shockers happen, but Sarlo's copper medal helped propel Team USA to win the overall team division.
It is not known if Sarlo had trouble getting back through Customs with that copper medal worn proudly around his neck. Come to think of it, those two weeks of October gloom cleared up the day Sarlo arrived back in Malibu, so there you go.
He's baaaaaaack!
Final Results –
Team
Gold: USA
Silver: Brazil
Bronze: South Africa
Copper: Puerto Rico
Grand Kahunas
Gold: Craig Schieber (CRI)
Silver: Chris Knutsen (RSA)
Bronze: Nick Pearson (AUS)
Copper: Allen Sarlo (USA)
Kahunas
Gold: Tom Curren (USA)
Silver: Jim Hogan (USA)
Bronze: David Malherbe (RSA)
Copper: David Husadel (BRA)
Grand Masters
Gold: Juan Ashton (PUR)
Silver: Jojo de Olivença (BRA)
Bronze: Fabio Gouveia (BRA)
Copper: Andre Malherbe (RSA)
Masters
Gold: Mark Richardson (AUS)
Silver: Carlos Cabrero (PUR)
Bronze: Gary Van Wieringen (RSA)
Copper: Ross Williams (HAW)
Final Team Standings
1 United States 9,396
2 Brazil 9,086
3 South Africa 8,886
4 Puerto Rico 8,618
5 Australia 8,480
6 Hawaii 7,664
7 Costa Rica 6,090
8 Argentina 6,016
9 France 5,821
10 Peru 5,548
11 Venezuela 5,363
12 Trinidad & Tobago 5,335
13 El Salvador 5,230
14 Ecuador 5,030
15 Uruguay 3,640
16 Mexico 2,240
17 Sweden 1,905
18 Germany 1,680
19 Switzerland 680
20 Panama 500
21 New Zealand 450
