Conner Coffin gladly excepts the changes to the WSL Finals and is ready for the challenge

Conner Coffin is preparing for his first appearance in the WSL finals in Lower Trestles, California. 

As the World Surf League Finals are approaching, the five surfers with the top score over the course of the season get ready to compete. Conner Coffin will be participating in the finals and hoping to be crowned the champ at the end of a one-day, winner takes all contest.

This year the final event of the WSL season is a bit different than years past. Usually, the winner is crowned based on total points added up throughout the year. This year the top five will be battling it out through a one-day contest in Lower Trestles, California. The change is a welcome addition to the tour and Coffin took some time out from his preparations to speak with FanSided.

“Every year when the season starts, I think about being in the top five, at least for me, someone who’s never been there,” Coffin said. “I finished seventh one year, but now that I’m there, I’m just so excited to have a chance at the world title. It’s pretty surreal. Just to think that it could happen if all the stars aligned down there. Trestles is really cool and I think it’s just different. For so many years, we count our world champion with the accumulation of points throughout the year and all the different breaks, which I think for surfing works really well because it’s such a unique sport where the ocean comes into play so much. It’s hard to pick a world champ on that one day based on a couple of heats, but at the same time for the sport and for spectating and being a part of it, it’s so exciting. So it’s just gonna be cool to see how it plays out.”

The new location is not so new to Coffin. He has had plenty of experience there and he thinks that will come in handy when he hits the water against the top in the world.

“Surfing is so much about your knowledge of that break and the waves,” Coffin explained. “Lucky for me, I’ve spent a ton of time at Trestles. I’ve been competing there since I was 11 years old, in the Scholastic nationals here. And that was actually the first major contest I won was at trestles when I was 12. So it definitely feels good to have the contest. I was really excited because we haven’t had a big event here on the California mainland since we lost Trestles, like three or four years ago, I think it’s the hub of this kind of surf world in the industry. It’s where I’m from, so I’m really excited to be competing on home turf. A lot of my family and my friends are going to come down. So that’ll be really nice.”

The finals contest will crown the best male and female surfers of 2021. To watch this contest tune into the WSL Youtube channel or on the WSL app. The contest is set to run between Sept. 9 and Sept. 17 depending on best wave conditions.