With the support of family, sponsors, and an irreproachable answer to “Where are you from?” Conner Coffin awaited his destiny: to compete at the highest level of professional surfing. Capricious currents yanked him around in his quest until, midway through this year, he figured it out. On December 3 at Sunset Beach in Oahu, by finishing fifth in the last event of the World Surf League Men’s Qualifying Series, Coffin moved into the top-10 rankings, a ticket to the 2016 Championship Tour (CT).
It’s like a golfer qualifying for the Masters and British Open, only more exclusive. Coffin will join 33 others — including the 22 top finishers on this year’s CT and two wildcards — on a tour that will take him to 11 of the world’s prime surfing spots on four continents.
He’s not the first Santa Barbara surfer to get there — just the latest in a span of decades. Tom Curren was a three-time world champion, winning his first in 1985. Chris Brown and Bobby Martinez followed in the wake of Curren on the men’s tour. Kim Mearig won a women’s world title in 1984, and Lakey Peterson is currently ranked No. 6 on the women’s CT.