Sierra Kerr (AUS) and Oscar Berry (AUS) won the World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) Siargao International Surfing Cup QS 5000. The most prestigious surf contest to run in the Philippines to date, the 28th edition of the event will be remembered for delivering incredible surf throughout. Though conditions were a little trickier for Finals Day, the three-to-four foot waves offered plenty of opportunity for the eight remaining surfers to perform.
Today’s win marks Kerr’s third career QS victory – all achieved in 2024 – and her first at the QS 5000 level. The 17-year-old reigning World Junior Champion dominated the event, posting the highest scores and taking commanding leads early in each heat. Having achieved large scores on the back of barrels and big turns through the early rounds, Kerr’s three biggest scores in the Final were all the result of punchy straight airs. Her two-wave heat total of 17.90, which included a 9.57 and an 8.33, was second only to her own event-high record in the Round of 32.
“I’m pretty happy, but it just doesn’t really feel real right now,” Kerr said. “I think that heat went through four seasons. It was pouring rain, where you couldn’t even see in the beginning, and then it was onshore, but then like, lighter onshore, then sunny. So I was trying turns and there was so many steps in the wave and I was like, oh, this isn’t working, I’ll just try and do an air off one of these and then it worked the first time, so I just kept going with it.”
The daughter of former Championship Tour surfer Josh Kerr (AUS), Sierra has long been expected to take up the mantle and follow in her father’s footsteps. Having previously not fully committed to competing, she has now changed her focus, launching straight to the top of the Australia / Oceania region QS rankings in the process.
“I wasn’t really trying to make Challengers last year,” Sierra continued. “Then I ended up making it and did a couple and I was like, oh I just want to be filming this year, and then next year I want to be on the Challengers, so I really put my effort into this comp.”
Sharing the Final with Kerr was her traveling roommate and fellow Gold Coast local, Charli Hately (AUS), whose strong backhand attack placed her as one of the standouts all event. The 15-year-old arrived in the Philippines straight off the back of her first QS win at the Cape Naturaliste Pro QS 1000. Having never made a QS Final before two weeks ago, Hately has now placed herself with back-to-back results and into No. 3 on the rankings.
An all-Australian battle also played out in the men’s Final, with yet another Gold Coaster, Oscar Berry (AUS), taking on Victoria’s Xavier Huxtable (AUS). It was the first time for either surfer to place in a QS 5000 Final, and it was Berry’s first-ever QS Final. Fresh from his first full season on the Challenger Series, the 21-year-old was sitting a long way down the rankings at the start of the event.
“I just did a full year (on the Challenger Series),” Berry said. “I had some good moments early in the year and felt really good in a few events and just had some weird heats that didn’t quite go the way that I would want them to. It just made me so hungry to want to do it again. I came into this event under the pump, pretty big time, and needed a result out of these next two events and to get this result is incredible. I’m so happy.”
Huxtable led for the majority of the Final, utilising his sharp forehand to attack critical sections over the shallow reef. But Berry had kept pace, and coming down to the final few minutes, found a double-up that allowed him to free his fins on an aggressive end-section hack and earn a 6.90 to turn the heat and secure the win.
“I’m pretty over the moon,” Berry continued. “It was a kind of crazy way to win it, with a wave in the last three minutes. I just can’t believe it, I feel like it’s been such a long time coming and I’m frothing. I feel like the whole week anyone could have got through heats, so I was just lucky to be on some really good waves. We had some amazing conditions. To get through that, and when I saw that Finals Day was maybe going to be a bit windy and a little bit smaller I was pretty frothing because I know that I can get it done on the rail and in the air. I’m just so frothing.”
In the Semifinals, Huxtable became the first surfer to beat John Mark Tokong (PHL), ‘the king of Cloud 9’, since 2018. The runner-up finish has shot the Victorian into No. 2 on the rankings, a position he will look to solidify over the coming events as he seeks to qualify for his first season on the Challenger Series.
Semifinal finishes for Milla Brown (AUS) and Tenshi Iwami (JPN) were also career-best performances. Iwami now sits at No. 3 on the Asia region rankings, while Tokong has moved to No. 10. The remaining Semifinalist, Holly Williams (AUS), moved up one crucial place to No. 4, where she now sits within the cut line for Challenger Series qualification.
Western Australia’s Macklin Flynn (AUS) posted a career-best result with a 5th place finish, bowing out eventual winner Oscar Berry in the quarterfinals.
Competitors will now shift their focus to the 2024 Taiwan Open of Surfing QS 5000, which will commence next Saturday, November 9, at Jinzun Harbor in Taitung County.
The 2024 Siargao International Surfing Cup QS 5000 was held at Cloud 9 in the Philippines from October 26 to November 4, 2024.
