The son of a San Diego professional surfer wins the U.S. Open
If you follow professional surfing, then you know about the Brazilian Storm, when surfers like Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira, among many others, dominated professional surfing.
But now there are indications that we might be seeing the emergence of a Mexican Storm.
First, a little background: In 2023, Alan George Cleland Quiñonez, AKA, Alan Cleland, Jr., who has a connection to San Diego (more on that in a bit), won the gold medal at the 2023 International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games in El Salvador. He was only the second Mexican surfer, after Jhony Corzo, to do so.
Even better, the win qualified Cleland, Jr. for the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming the first Mexican surfer to qualify for the Olympics. (Surfing was included as an Olympic sport for the first time in the 2020 Olympics held in Tokyo.)
Fast forward one year to 2024: Cleland put on quite a show in Tahiti, French Polynesia, where the 2024 Olympics surfing competition was held, but he was eliminated in the third round, falling just short of the quarterfinals.
And now, just two weeks after representing Mexico in the 2024 Olympics, Cleland became the first south-of-the-border surfer to win the U.S. Open, billed at the world’s largest surf competition, in Huntington Beach.
And it gets better, at least for Mexico: the final, decisive heat at the U.S. Open pitted Cleland against Marco Mignot, a French surfer who was born in Casablanca but spent a good chunk of his life living and surfing in Mexico – Sayulita in Riviera Nayarit – and identifies as a Mexican surfer.
In an all-Mexican final heat, Cleland beat Mignot in dramatic fashion, on the last wave of the contest, right when the clock was expiring. Cleland’s point total was 12.70 while Mignot’s was 12.60.
“It means everything to me to represent my flag, my entire country, my people,” Cleland told Surfer magazine. “It is an honor. Being able to put this flag up high is incredible. Viva Mexico!” He said the entire experience was epic. “Especially having a final with one of my good friends who I grew up surfing with, literally since we were 8 years old.”
The Challenger Series (CS) is a feeder system, sort of like the Triple A minor leagues in baseball, and the U.S. Open is one of only six contests on the CS circuit. By doing well in the CS, surfers can qualify for the big time: the Championship Tour (CT). By winning the U.S. Open, Cleland moved up 42 spots in the CS rankings, landing at No. 9. Which is great news for Cleland, as the top ten surfers in the CS get to compete in the 2025 CT. There are only two contests left in the 2024 CS schedule, in Portugal and Brazil. By Oct. 20th, we will know the final rankings and whether Cleland was able to qualify for the CT.
“It’s an honor to see how far we’ve come. To have the support crew, the Mexico crew, all my friends and my dad, everybody here, it feels crazy,” said Cleland.
Yes, so onto Cleland’s dad and the San Diego connection. Alan Cleland, Sr. was a professional surfer in San Diego who moved to Mexico and, for all intents and purposes, never came back. He met the woman that would become his wife, a Mexican national, in Boca de Pascuales, a remote fishing village with uncrowded surf in the city of Tecoman—where Cleland, Jr. was born—in the Mexican state of Colima
His father put his son onto his first surfboard when he was only two years old.
The rest is history.
Viva Mexico!
Editor’s Note: Watch the Cleland-Mignot final heat at the 2024 U.S. Open:
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