Kanoa Igarashi


Kanoa Igarashi is a Japanese American surfer from Huntington Beach, California who has competed professionally worldwide since 2012. Kanoa was the youngest rookie on the World Surf League Championship Tour in 2016 and collected the most Round One wins than any other surfer, finished 2nd place at the Pipeline event, and 20th place overall that year. His greatest career performance was in the 2019 WSL CT where he won the Corona Bali Protected event and placed 6th place overall that year.

Childhood

Kanoa's father Tsutomu was a surfer in Japan and an avid fan of the sport himself. When his wife Misa found out she was pregnant, the couple quit their jobs in Tokyo and moved to Huntington Beach, California, aka Surf City, with the goal of raising their child to be a competitive surfer. Tsutomu took his son Kanoa surfing as young as age 3, and would routinely wake Kanoa up to go surfing by 5:45AM so he could still make it to school on time. Kanoa won his first surfing trophy by age 7.

Career

In 2016 he entered as the youngest rookie to the WSL CT and the first representative surfer for Japan in the WSL. He won the Vans U.S. Open WSL event in his hometown of Huntington Beach two years in a row in 2017 and 2018, but was eliminated early the following year. Kanoa's first 1st-place finish at a WSL CT event was at the Corona Bali Protected event in Indonesia in 2019; he placed 6th overall that year.
As a top ranked finisher of the 2019 WSL CT, Kanoa has qualified to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo as a representative of Japan. The games have been postponed to July 23, 2021 due to the 2019 Coronavirus outbreak. The selected beach break for the competition is at Tsurigasaki beach in the town of Ichinomiya, Chiba prefecture. The chosen beach break has special meaning to Kanoa as it is the same beach break that Kanoa's father Tsutomu not only surfed at, but also reportedly discovered with his friends and called "the Dojo".
Tournament2016201720182019
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast9th25th9th9th
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach13th25th25th9th
Corona Bali Protected--25th1st
Margaret River Pro13th13th25th9th
Oi Rio Pro13th9th9th5th
Corona Open J-Bay13th25th3rd5th
Billabong Pro Tahiti Teahupoo13th13th9th17th
Freshwater Pro--3rd9th
Quiksilver Pro France13th25th25th17th
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal13th3rd5th3rd
Billabong Pipeline Masters2nd3rd13th17th
Fiji Pro13th25th--
Hurley Pro at Trestles13th5th--
OVERALL RANK20th17th10th6th
Earnings$157,250$153,250$174,600$253,900