Pavones local Leon Glatzer, of Costa Rican and German nationality, won yesterday the QS 1000 Pismo Beach Open which concluded yesterday in perfect waves of half to one meter breaking at the aforementioned beach in central California.

Glatzer has been able to show the best of his surfing in videos and photographs, travelling around the world, surfing perfect waves, but he has not been able to replicate this in events. So far his best QS result after some 25 events in four years was a pair of 13s in two QS 1500s (South Africa and France this year).

He managed to combine the best of his surfing this weekend and left no room for doubt, winning the tournament in the final against local Kevin Schulz, who comes inspired by placing fifth in the ISA World Championship in Japan and qualifying for Lima 2019.

“It’s a great feeling to win an event with this level of competition,” Leon told WSL media. “The waves were really good throughout the event, it’s one of the best QSs I’ve ever competed in. It’s funny because the guys were telling me this place doesn’t get that good, but when I saw it I thought it was amazing, it felt like home. I’ve been doing QS tournaments for three years and I finally managed to win.”

With this result, Glatzer moved up 52 places in the QS rankings to 164th.

Another competitor in Pismo was Peruvian Lucca Mesinas, who placed ninth and, although he lost ground in the lead (to Kevin Schulz) in the WSL North America regional ranking, he remains first with only one tournament in Barbados ahead of him.

Final result of the Pismo Beach Open
1- Leon Glatzer
2- Kevin Schulz
3- Jake Marshall and Taylor Clark
5- Kade Matson, Nate Yeomans, Matt Passaquindici and Michael Dunphy
9- Lucca Messinas