Local professional surfer Tony Silvagni finished 2015 ranked fifth in the world on the longboard tour, on which he hopes to both win a world title and inspire young surfers back home.
Silvagni secured his place on the 2016 World Longboard Tour with two strong performances at the end of 2015: a win in the Taiwan Open of Surfing and fifth place in the World Longboard Championships.
This will be the Silvagni’s eighth consecutive year competing on tour against the world’s best longboarders. The only American currently ranked higher than Silvagni is two-time world champion Taylor Jensen.
The two Americans met in the final of the Taiwan contest in November. The surfers’ highest two wave scores counted towards their final tally, and Silvagni started strong with an 8.0 and a 9.25. Jensen made a late comeback but came up half a point short.
Silvagni said he entered the Taiwan event partly to prepare for the World Longboard Championships in Hainan Island, China Dec. 5–12, in which the world’s best 36 longboarders competed for the title of World Champion.
Silvagni advanced through the opening rounds and met Jensen again in the quarterfinals. This time it was Jensen who took an early lead with a 9.27. Although Silvagni fought back with two mid-8s, Jensen capped the heat off with a 10, a perfect score, in the final seconds.
The competition in the water is extremely tough, Silvagni said, but on land they’re friendly. The surfers eat dinner together, share a bus to and from the hotel, and after a winner is crowned they all paddle out together and freesurf. He likes getting to know longboarders from different cultures and seeing how they surf and what boards they ride.
But Silvagni isn’t on tour just for the experience—he wants to win a world title, a goal he thinks will become more attainable as the longboard tour adds more events to next year’s schedule. While there were longboard contests throughout 2015, the only event that counted towards the world title was the contest in China, and Silvagni said that puts pressure on surfers to be on their game.
“You have to perform at your best ability at that one main event, and either you’re on or you’re off,” he said. “If you have a bad heat, you’re out of the competition.”
And, Silvagni added, “Every heat could definitely be like a final because all the surfers competing for the world title are such a high caliber.”
He said tour organizers are considering running multiple events next year so surfers can accumulate points towards a world title based on how they place in each contest. Organizing events requires financial backing, but the longboard tour is gaining exposure from the World Surf League’s live event streaming. The Taiwan contest’s live steam had 19,000 views in one day, Silvagni pointed out.
Among those viewers were the children Silvagni teaches to surf at his Carolina Beach surf school. He wants to be a positive ambassador for the sport, but he hopes any young surfers who see him as a role model are inspired not just by his surfing but also by his hard work and healthy lifestyle.
“I just try and work hard,” he said. “Whenever I work hard it makes me appreciate it so much more.”
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