Kolohe Andino thought he was being pulled aside for a drug test, following an October surf contest in Portugal.
But instead of having to submit a sample of some sort, he was given unprecedented news: He had made the inaugural USA Surfing Olympic team, filling the first of two men’s spots for the sport’s historic Olympic Games debut, in 2020 in Tokyo.
“That’s rad,” Andino recalled saying when learning the news, though admittedly, the gravity of what it meant at the time didn’t quite soak in until later.
of
It was during a quite moment at home in San Clemente when a commercial came on TV featuring an Olympic gymnast, Andino marveling at her acrobatic skills on display for the world in a way surfing has never seen.
“Wow, I’m kind of like her,” he thought.
“To be able to surf for my country …I’m super stoked.”
An early surf prodigy
Have fun and never give up. Try as hard as you can and believe in yourself.
Those were early lessons Andino got from his father, Dino, a former World Tour surfer who in a 2012 interview talked about raising a surf prodigy who first hit the waves when he was five.
It wasn’t long before the younger Andino started entering contests — and his competitive spirit was apparent.
“He was scared to do contests because he didn’t want to lose,” Dino Andino said in 2012. “He didn’t know how good he was.”
It wasn’t long until the rest of the surfing world would start taking note.
At 15, Andino became the youngest surfer to earn a National Scholastic Surfing Association open men’s title. He eventually shattered the record for the most championships held by a male surfer after earning nine titles through the years.
In 2009, Andino won two USA Surfing championship titles — the under 16 and under 18 — at Lower Trestles against the country’s best surfers, in the process making the USA junior national surf team and giving himself an early taste of what the upcoming Olympics might be like.
“Now coming full circle, we lose them when they turn pro. We are happy they are in successful pro careers. Now we can come back around and offer them this Olympic experience, it’s pretty cool,” said Greg Cruse, CEO for USA Surfing, who coached a young Andino when he surfed for the Shorecliffs Middle School team and has dubbed the surfer “Captain America.” “You knew he was special. He won everything and never lost.”
He wasn’t on the junior surf team for long. Andino won his first pro event at 16, taking out a much more experienced World Tour surfer, Adriano de Souza, at a qualifying series event in Huntington Beach.
From there, he wasted no time propelling to the top, securing a spot in 2012 alongside the best competitive surfers on the World Surf League World Tour.
His first few years on tour, from 2012 to 2015, Andino was finding his footing, unable to break the top 10 among the world’s best. But in 2016, he showed he was right where he belongs, coming in fourth at the end of the year — and within striking distance of a world title.
After eight years on tour, Andino has matured. Now 25, he started the 2019 competitive year with serious momentum, wearing the prestigious “yellow jersey,” which goes to the top points holder, for a stint mid-year after a string of strong results.
While short-lived, Andino was the first World Tour ratings leader from California in more than two decades, a feat in itself.
“I’ve just been trying to focus on the world title,” he said. “I had the yellow jersey for one event and in the hunt the rest of the year.”
The key this year was not to get ahead of himself and to take each event heat-by-heat, as cliché as it sounds, he said.
His hopes for a world title ended Thursday, Dec. 19, the final day of the last surf competition of the year, the Billabong Pipe Masters on the North Shore of Hawaii.
His odds were slim, with Brazilian surfers Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira higher in the ratings and hungry for the title. To win, they would have had to lose out in early rounds and Andino would have had to take the victory, but both Brazilians advanced and knocked Andino out of the running.
Looking ahead
Going into 2020, as Olympic excitement builds and Andino takes another shot at a world title, he’s approaching things a little differently than in years past – taking it easy.
“Right now is an interesting time, a little back injury lingered a bit,” he said. “I’ve just been reshaping that and doing stuff I normally don’t do – relaxing and resting and that sort of thing.
“It’s been weird.”
Part of resting his body is to prepare for the Olympics, where he’ll face a strong field. Among the toughest competition will be the Brazilians, he said.
When it comes to who he wanted as his teammate – eleven-time world champ Kelly Slater or good friend John John Florence – Andino was torn.
“I’m obviously a lot closer to John John, we’re friends. It would be cool to go with him. But obviously Kelly deserves everything he gets – that would be great for Kelly too,” he said.
Ultimately, it was Florence who earned the final spot on the Olympic team after a nail-biting battle at the Billabong Pipe Masters showdown. He and Andino will be heading for Tokyo with the two members of the women’s surf team, Florida native and San Clemente resident Caroline Marks and Hawaiian Carissa Moore.
What was different in 2019 for Andino, leading to such great success?
“I think I’ve matured a lot, I think I’m finding out who I am and who I’m supposed to be,” he said. “When heats haven’t gone my way, I take 100% ownership and that’s spilled into my whole life. I’m taking ownership in everything … and also I put in the work and I believe I work harder than anyone. Those things combined have given me the confidence and I feel a lot more ready to go.”
It really comes down to a feeling he’ll take from his home soil to the Olympic arena: a love for the sport.
“I’m just a surfer who loves to compete,” Andino said. “I just try and do my thing and enjoy it — have fun.”
Recent Comments