Surf photographer Diane Edmonds with Eppicsurf.com sent over these great shots of the two winners of last weekend’s Vans Pier Classic presented by Jack’s Surfboards.

Mike Losness of San Clemente, 28, claimed the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 2-Star event.

Big props must go out to Dillon Perillo of Malibu, who not only nabbed the win for the Ezekiel pro Junior, but also finished second in the men’s event. He was in seven heats on Sunday, so to do that well in the men’s final is pretty amazing.

Orange County surfers Luke Davis of Capistrano Beach and Andrew Doheny of Newport both made it to the junior finals.

Andrew Doheny

Just had a chat with Mike Losness about his win in HB. Here’s what he had to say: 
Mike Losness went into the Vans Pier Classic surf contest with a goal – make the quarter finals, and anything better than that would be great.

 
So even when the judges announced him as the winner after the finals on Sunday, he had to look at his friends on the beach and say “really? did I win?”

 “I went into it moreso doing it for fun, with not so much pressure,” said the San Clemente surfer. “The waves got really small, it was the end of the day, everyone was freezing cold. I went out there and knew the younger surfers had been surfing well. I pretty much just surfed as well as I could.”

The Vans Pier Classic, presented by Jack’s Surfboards, was the first WQS west coast stop on the ASP tour, and the first juniors’ event of the year.

Orange County locals have taken home the win (Brett Simpson, Micah Byrne and Shaun Ward) every year since the 2-star event has been held here at the Huntington Beach Pier for the past four years. Surfers came from around the world to take on Huntington’s waves.

Losness didn’t enter the Van’s Pier Classic last year, he was in Australia hitting the higher-rated contests. This year, he’s decided to enter contests closer to home so he can work with his new sponsor Reef on an upcoming surf movie. Also, he just got married a few months ago, and doesn’t want to leave his wife home for weeks at a time.

The last day of the final was a tough day. Strong winds, cloudy skies, and sloppy surf made things tough for the competitors.

While the waves were tough to read, Losness got a really good wave at the start of the final heat, and scored an 8.5.

His tactic was to get on a lot of right-handers, to get more backside maneuvers on the wave.
“I was able to get one really good on the first turn, the judges really like that first opening move. I was able to capitalize on a few more,” he said. “It’s great to start like that, it gives you that little bit of confidence.”

He ended up falling on a couple of the following waves, but was able to get a score of 7.65 on his last wave.

“It just kind of opened up and allowed me to do a few good moves,” he said.

And let’s not forget the $5,000 he got to take home.

“I’m stoked …my wife and I are house hunting right now and every little bit helps,” he said.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.