Exile’s 20th annual Oktoberfest has come to a close, bringing us a fairytale ending to the 2025 United Skim Tour season. Finals day here at Balboa’s Pier in Newport Beach, was one like no other; filled with laughs, hurricane swell (thank you Lorena), driving barrels, and memories that will last a lifetime, Oktoberfest saw it all!
Starting the day off we saw all the semi-final heats for the amateurs take to the double overhead conditions pounding through Newport. You could see liners start down at the Wedge and make their way all the way to brush the bottom of the pier. Everyone was charging and ripping to the best of their ability while the pros were warming up, and our Menehune Monsters were patiently waiting their turn. Walking straight into the pros, back-to-back action between the men and women started and did not stop for a minute until the winners prevailed.
Due to the smacking sets, the slope had started to get eaten, leaving a pretty decent shelf where the slope usually is, proving conditions to be more difficult than originally planned for. Battling all the way through to the quarterfinals, Gerardo Valencia, Mason Broussard, and Leo Freitas all put up great fights in tough and challenging conditions that pushed everyone to their max, including our top guns. Mason showed his best local knowledge as he found gems in the rough with the incoming sets, driving barrels, 3 shuvs down the face of the wave, and driving backside rail-grab cover-ups, garnering him a 7th place finish! Gerardo, coming off of a gnarly hamstring injury at the Vic gave it his all, feeling great, to charge the biggest sets, for stand-up barrels, driving tubes, 3 shuvs out and air reentries up the slope, he crushed it and landed in 6 th place! Leo, not far behind him, worked in 360 bashes to cover ups, 720 spins out to huge wraps, and slid out halfway to Catalina to bring back heavy shore break and a 5 th place finish! To round out the contest on a high note Gio and Brody got to tackle the west coast together for the very first time! A battle that will stay with the boys forever, Brody and Gio were back and forth, the whole heat, neither one letting up, and each wave improving upon the last! Both boys bringing their unique styles and approaches, giving the crowd everything they could want, ended with Gio taking home 1st in his first ever time in California, and Brody securing a well-earned 2nd place!
The fairytale ending to the perfect season for our newest UST Champion Alex Yokley, got her moment of glory as she was chaired up to receive her trophy with the Zap crew behind her! It was such a picture-perfect moment, and we are so proud, CONGRATS Alex!!!
Thank you to everyone who helped make our 2025 skim season so special and memorable! We cannot wait until next year! See you guys soon!