Day One
In the run up to the 2019 Exile Oktoberfest in Newport Beach, the wave forecast seemed to be uncertain. At first a hurricane swell was forecast to hit during the contest, but that fizzled out, and later a long-period swell looked to fill in on Sunday on the swell charts, but forecasters predicted it might show up early on Saturday. On Saturday morning, it was evident that the forecasters were overly optimistic, as the waves were about one foot throughout the morning. The professional men and women decided to run only a single round of heats on Saturday and to postpone the remaining rounds to Sunday in the hopes that the swell would show up for day two.
Round one for the men was largely a tech battle in small waves. The top eight seeds in the professional men’s division all automatically advanced into round two, giving the lower ranked skimboarders a chance to battle it out in three-man heats. Two obvious standouts in round one were Gerardo Valencia and Sam Stinnett, who both managed to link together a barrage of shuvits in their heats. Another standout was Tim Fulton who had the highest day-one heat total, mixing a lot of power and tech including a few frontside airs. Jack Klingman had a solid round one performance as well, managing to land a clean 540 shuvit along with a few other technical liners.
For the pro women, Sophia Nguyen was looking to backup her recent win in Vilano, and she came out in her first heat posting the highest women’s heat total of the day of 16.57. Casey Kiernan, who was sitting in third on the UST rankings before this event, also managed to post up a 16-point heat in round one, helping her win her heat.
Day Two
When the contestants arrived on day two, the new long-period swell was starting to show. The sets started off inconsistently, but as the heats went on it was obvious that there were going to be plenty of head-high waves throughout the day. The long-period nature of the swell combined with the rising tide meant that some heats saw only one set, while other heats had pumping waves throughout. These big but inconsistent conditions lead to some interesting strategy from the top pros; some competitors opted to maintain priority and wait for the biggest waves while others worked in technical moves on smaller waves under priority.
Rounds two and three for the men were held in some of the best conditions the UST had seen all year. In round two, Tim Fulton snagged first against 2019 UST Champion Lucas Fink and Zack Le Bon. This made Fulton the first skimboarder all year to beat Fink on points alone. Unfortunately for Fulton, he was eliminated in round three to Paddy Mack who put down two 6-point rides in the dying minutes of the heat to take the heat win. Zach Philoctete turned quite a few heads with his stylish skimming in round two, advancing over UST ranked number six Mason Broussard. Philoctete was later knocked out in round three by Austin Keen, who launched perhaps the gnarliest air of the contest, a corked 360 indy grab re-entry. The final heat of round two was a superheat on paper with three previous world champions: Blair Conklin, Sam Stinnett and Bill Bryan. Sam and Blair both put together solid heats and nabbed first and second place respectively, eliminating Bryan. Two of the youngest competitors Lucas Fink and Yahir Valencia battled it out in round three in a heat that turned into an absolute tech battle. During the final set, Lucas managed to land two 360 shuvits out to a wrap barrel for a 9.1, and Valencia answered back on the very next wave linking a 360 shuvit to a 360 spin before wrapping a head-high set wave for an 8.1. Fink held off Valencia and took the heat win.
The women pro quarter finals were up next, and the first heat saw the two youngest pro women Sophia Nguyen and Jordan Sitea go head to head. Sophia was on the biggest waves of the heat and managed to get barreled for a 7.1. The next heat saw two skimboarders from Mexico, Diana Rosa Cordova and Chabe Blanco, go head to head. Cordova threw a bunch of water on her turns and she took out Blanco. Kelsey Bloome and Amber Torrealba had one of the most competitive heats of the weekend, with each rider grabbing barrels and throwing lots of spray on their backside hacks. Bloome snuck out a win in that heat as the underdog, eliminating Torrealba.
During the men’s quarter finals, the waves seemed to slow down a bit, and most competitors had trouble posting scores over 6 points. Paddy Mack took an early lead in his heat against Lucas Fink. However, Fink was back into his usual form during the second half of the heat and he put up three 6-point rides to eliminate Mack. Austin Keen led most of his heat against Jake Stinnet, and in the dying seconds of the heat Stinnett got the best wave of the heat but was nonetheless narrowly defeated by Keen by less than 0.2 points. Gerardo Valencia defeated John Weber in heat 3, propelling Valencia to his highest placing all year as he made the semi finals. In the last heat of the quarters, Blair Conklin defeated Sam Stinnett, as Conklin grabbed the best waves of the heat.
In the first women’s semi final, Diana Cordova and Sophia Nguyen went up against one another in a UST title deciding heat, where Nguyen could secure her 2019 UST title with a heat win. Diana started off in the lead, throwing lots of water on her backside wraps. Sophia Nguyen found her groove in the latter part of the heat, grabbing a 7.6 in the final few minutes for a big wrap barrel, securing her heat win and the UST title. Casey Kiernan and Kelsey Bloome’s heat was up next, and the lead kept changing back and forth throughout the heat. Kiernan kept charging the largest wraps of the heat, and she ended up walking away with a trip to the final and the heat win.
In the first semi final heat, Lucas Fink and Austin Keen had a rematch after meeting in the semi final at the Vic just a few weeks ago. Keen held his lead through the final minutes and ended up eliminating Fink. For the first contest all season Fink did not advance to the final. Blair Conklin and Gerardo Valencia also battled head to head in the semi finals. In the dying seconds, Valencia needed a score while Conklin held priority. Valencia ran for a backside air off the pier bowl and Conklin did as well. This ended up drawing an interference on Valencia. The interference ultimately did not factor into the outcome, as Conklin held the lead, and he ended up securing his path to the final.
In the final heat of the pro women’s division, Casey Kiernan held the heat lead throughout. Kiernan snagged two 6-point rides toward the end of the heat, including one stylish layback into the barrel. Nguyen grabbed a solid 6.4 toward the end of the heat, but it was not enough to take back the lead, and Kiernan was able to grab the win for the Women’s pro division at Oktoberfest.
Leading up to the pro men final, the high tide seemed to have swamped out the swell, and for an hour before the final heat the set waves were not really showing up in any meaningful way. As Keen and Conklin were putting on their jerseys, a set appeared on the horizon and the organizers rushed into a heat start so the competitors could take advantage of the set. The announcers joked that it seemed like Poseiden was watching, and the following 15-minute heat was filled with over a dozen overhead waves for Conklin and Keen to show off their skills.
The very first wave, Keen and Conklin both hit the waves backside and launched air drops into the flats. Conklin had a bigger and cleaner drop, giving him the edge on that exchange and setting the tone for the rest of the heat. Conklin followed up with a few critical backside wraps along with one of the best frontside layback turns throughout the whole weekend. Keen quickly answered back with a frontside layback of his own, though it did not score as high as Conklin’s. Toward the end of the heat, Conklin popped an ollie backside 180 on the way out to the wave, he spun the remaining 180 on the water before banking off the lip and air dropping off the head-high wave into the flats. Not to be outdone, Keen quickly followed up with a 180 airdrop off a set wave, but that ride was not enough to mount a comeback. At the end of the heat, Conklin had secured his second contest win of 2019.
Pro Men Results
- Blair Conklin
- Austin Keen
- Lucas Fink
- Gerardo Valencia
Pro Women Results
- Casey Kiernan
- Sophia Nguyen
- Diana Cordova
- Kelsey Bloome
UST Title Race
After clinching the UST title in Florida, Lucas Fink’s third place finish in Newport did not factor into his top four placings for the 2019 tour. With four first-place finishes, Fink was crowned the champion for the Professional Men’s division. Blair Conklin’s first-place finish at Oktoberfest was his second win for the year, solidifying his number two ranking; however, this was the first time in four years that Conklin was unable to take home the UST title. John Weber had solid placings all year, finishing between second and sixth place on each stop he attended, and he finished third on the UST rankings for 2019.
On the women’s side going into the final event of the season, Sophia Nguyen was sitting in first with two first-place finishes; Amber Torrealba was in second with a first and a third place finish; and Casey Kiernan was in third with two second-place finishes. With Nguyen advancing into the final, she was able to secure her points lead with a second place finish. Kiernan’s win brought her into second on the rankings, and Torrealba finished the year in third place.
Congratulations to all of our professional competitors this year, and thanks to all of the fans who followed along. 2019 proved to be an historic year for the United Skim Tour. We’re excited to see what happens in 2020!
View Complete Men’s 2019 Rankings