Sept 18 (Reuters) - Canadian teenage surfing phenomenon Erin Brooks claimed her third straight world championship tour event on Friday with a win at the Trestles Pro, while Brazil's Miguel Pupo took out Japan's Kanoa Igarashi for his second win of the year.
Identified early as a potential world champion, the 19-year-old Brooks struggled in the first six events of her sophomore season, failing to make it out of the second round. But a spectacular performance saw her claim a win in the heaving barrels
of Tahiti, and she backed it up at another powerful South Pacific reef break to triumph at the Fiji Pro just a couple of weeks later.
Lower Trestles, the surfing venue for the 2028 LA Olympics, is a very different kind of wave but one of the best in the sport's commercial homeland of Southern California and the cobblestone peak delivered high-performance, head-high waves for the finals.
After taking out five-times world champion Carissa Moore in their quarterfinal and Australia's reigning world champion Molly Picklum in the semifinal, Brooks got off to a strong start in the final against world No. 1 Gabriela Bryan, scoring 7.0 out of 10 for a series of sharp, accurate turns on her backhand.
Bryan keep herself in the contest with a 6.33 with some trademark powerful gouges on her forehand and backed it up with a 5.57 for a 11.90 total. But Brooks looked in control throughout, holding the lead after a second mid-range score and sealing the deal with another well-surfed right-hander as the clock wound down for a 6.0 and a 13-point total.
"The first part of the year was such a bummer, but this makes it worth it. So many hard heats just made me want to work even harder and now I've gotten to this point and I want to keep going," Brooks said after her win. "Last year, I went surfing (here) right after the girl's final and I could hear from the water them giving the trophies to someone else and I said to myself 'Next year, I want to do that for myself.'"
Brooks' three-peat was the first on the world tour since Australia's eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore did it in 2008.
Igarashi's parents moved to Southern California from Japan just before he was born, hoping he could become a professional surfer. The 28-year-old, who won silver for Japan at the Tokyo Olympics, took at early advantage in the final with a couple of mid-range scores with some powerful turns on his forehand on the crumbling walls and kept improving his scoreline, notching up a 7.67 and then a 6.73 to open up 14.40 total and a solid advantage.
But Pupo got the better of one exchange, caught the bigger second wave of a set and belted it multiple times on his backhand for an excellent 8.5. He then held his nerve and waited for a long left-hander on which he mixed up sharp turns and a small aerial to score a 6.27 for a 14.77 total and the lead as the clock wound down.
"It's been such hard work this year," said the 34-year-old, who is competing in his 16th year on tour. "I feel like this is my last shot at it, and so I'm going to do it all the way and I'm happy to come up with two wins."
The tour now breaks into a two-event "post-season" with contests for the top 24 men and 16 women in Portugal and the Philippines, before the whole field returns for the season finale at Hawaii's Pipeline in December.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Sam Holmes)
