U.S. OPEN FINAL DAY

WHAT?

Malia Manuel is 14. When I think about what I was doing at 14-years-old—decorating mix tape covers and barely working at the ice cream shop—well, it wasn’t winning the U.S. Open of Surfing, that’s for sure. She’s the youngest competitor to ever win the whole damn thing … and to think she didn’t even make it into the junior event (which Coco actually ended up winning). There weren’t too many waves in the main event final and even though, on any given day, it could’ve been a tossup between Malia and Coco, Malia was definitely more in form. She deserved the $4,500, a jetski (which she’s probably not even old enough to operate herself) and the win. Now she’s completely beside herself. That girl’s got a bright future ahead of her and a parent couldn’t ask for a more perfect little girl. She’s got a 4.0 gpa and I’ve never heard a curse come out of her mouth, ever. Just a big ol’ smile and sweet little voice.

Malia celebrated with the O’Neill crew all night rated-G style while all the other girls ran around packing up their stuff, getting ready to leave Huntington and Southern California in general, which I’m sure they’re more or less sort of happy about. I mean, Saturday of the U.S. Open and Huntington was a scene. If you have little patience for elbow to elbow people and standstill traffic, HB was not the place for you. So everyone kept it pretty mellow last night, except maybe for the skate girls. They seem to take things to the next level in general, though. For me it was back to San Clemente and to an artshow, but International Froggy, Amandine Sanchez, World Tour surfer Amee Donohoe and South African cutie, Nikita Robb, showed up with a little crew so the fun rolled on.

And now the traveling circus of girls are off to Portugal for the next stop. I’ll really miss the excitement but it makes me look forward to my next rendezvous all the more.