California's Next Generation of Young Women Continue to Put Surf World on Notice

Teen phenoms Caity Simmers and Sawyer Lindblad going toe-to-toe in Brazil last week was not just a watershed moment for California surfing, it was a harbinger of what’s to come. Case in point, 17-year-old Bella Kenworthy just acing the Ballito Pro to take her first Challenger Series win, putting her squarely in the Championship Tour qualification conversation.

Growing up in Orange County competing, traveling and surfing with the likes of Simmers, Lindblad and a whole crew of California girls that appear intent on taking the world by storm, the win rockets her up the Challenger Series leaderboard nine spots into the fourth-place position. The top-five women from the Challenger Series will graduate to the 2025 Championship Tour, and with the U.S. Open in Huntington Beach coming up next, look for Kenworthy to further establish her position in home waters.

“It feels so good, I did not come into this event expecting this,” Kenworthy said after her win in Ballito. “I’m so excited going into the U.S. Open now, it’s so close to home, so hopefully I can carry the momentum.”

Beating Tahiti’s Vahine Fierro, the win helps establish Kenworthy as a rising star amongst the world’s best surfers. Fierro’s coming off a win at the Tahiti Pro and is widely considered a favorite to win a gold medal at the upcoming Olympic Games, which will take place at her home break of Teahupo’o.

Related: Who Will Win Gold at Teahupo'o? The SURFER Staff Makes Their Picks.

“A big congrats to Bella for winning her first Challenger Series, it’s so cool,” Fierro explained. “I’m super stoked on getting a trophy, it’s 58 hours to go back home so it was worth coming all this way!”

Kenworthy exploded onto the skateboarding scene when she was a little girl, even competing in the skate event at the U.S. Open before she was a teenager. In recent years, her focus has been on surfing, and as we just saw with her break-out win in South Africa, the effort and commitment’s paying off. She won the WSL Qualifying Series' Ron Jon Roxy Pro, and finished runner-up at the SLO CAL Open at Pismo Beach earlier in the year.

“Thanks to everyone for tuning in and watching my heats, everyone back home, but especially my mom,” Kenworthy continued.

On the men’s side of the draw, the win went to Brazil’s Ian Gouveia, who held on against another Californian in Nolan Rapoza. The victory puts Gouveia atop the men’s Challenger Series rankings, while Rapoza jumps an eye-popping 56 spots, cracking the top ten at number eight on the leaderboard. And like Kenworthy, he’ll look to home water advantage to carry him deep into the U.S. Open.

Related: Italo Ferreira Wins on Home Soil, Caity Simmers Secures Spot in WSL Finals