Tudor Captures Longboard Title

For Joel Tudor, it’s all about respecting your elders. Or in his case, respecting the legends of his sport.

Tudor’s victory in the longboard competition of the U.S. Open surfing championships was special because it came before an estimated 50,000 fans who were gathered just south of the Huntington Beach pier. But it wasn’t complete until he hugged longboard legend Dave Nuuhiwa in the media tent.

“I need to pay homage to people like Dave who laid it down before me,” said Tudor, 23, of Del Mar. “We’re getting paid to surf now. When Dave was around, they were stoked to get a pair of trunks for winning.”

Sunday, Tudor took home $2,500 for defeating his rival and current world champion, Colin McPhillips of San Clemente. Tudor’s best three waves gave him 21.05 points to 16.25 for McPhillips.

Early in the 30-minute competition, Tudor fell behind McPhillips, who scored 6.5 on his first wave.

“That kind of woke me up,” Tudor said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to have to go down and sit on him or something.’ ”

By the 15-minute mark, Tudor was virtually even with McPhillips. But he scored an 8.25 just before conditions began to flatten.

“I caught a whole bunch early to get my wave count up, then I waited and got my best ride,” he said. “After that, I just sat and watched.”

And a frustrated McPhillips began to realize it wasn’t going to be his day.

“When Mother Nature doesn’t send you one,” McPhillips said, “there’s nothing much you can do but wait.”

McPhillips, who trailed Tudor by more than eight points, finally caught a decent-sized wave, but he could only get 5.75 points out of it.

Tudor, the 1998 world champion, was entering the finals on a high. In the semifinals, he scored the only 10 of the two-week U.S. Open competition.

“It was fortunate they gave us the opportunity to see the bulk of the crowd,” Tudor said. “I’m stoked. I can think of worse places to collect your money.”

And McPhillips, more of a “progressive surfer,” said he can think of worse people to lose to than Tudor.

“We’ve been going at it for a long time,” McPhillips said. “We go back and forth, but he’s gotten the best of me. But I love his style and I love watching Joel surf.”

Finishing third was Josh Baxter of San Clemente, who had 15.25 points and high wave of 5.8. Amateur Travis Northey of Oceanside was fourth with 14.10 points.