Number three surfer on the World Surf League Championship Tour, Griffin Colapinto credits his mind work and visualization for his stellar year.
The world of competitive surfing is a close-knit community. The surfers on the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour all know each other and have to go head-to-head with each other at every stop along the way. With each wave having its own properties and dangers, these surfers need to create their own styles and ways to win. This year Griffin Colapinto has been winning. He is currently sitting in the number three spot in the rankings and has qualified for the Finals event in September and the Olympic Games next year.
Colapinto is a fan favorite who charges the waves but is chill when he's out of the water. Colapinto is posed to make his first appearance in the one-day winner-takes-all WSL Final event being held in California in September. Heading into that massive event and all year on tour, Colapinto has used his mind to gain an edge over his competitors. He sat down with FanSided to discuss his successful season, his outlook on the future, and his process of using visualization.
"I'll do some like envisioning, visualizing and because I don't have any waves like (Tahiti) where I live, just making sure your body is fit and your mind is in a good place," he said. "I had a trainer that gave me this book, The Power of Now and I read that book and I got some really good things from that. That triggered something in me where I dug deeper into myself and worked on being more present, being aware of my thoughts, and realizing how much that translates over into surfing. The more I did it, the better I felt and the more I realized how important it is, it steamrolled into being my advantage over my other competitors, that could be my edge."
Griffin Colapinto will be representing Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games
Colapinto took that edge and surfed with it this year. He is currently ranked third, he won the Surf Ranch Pro event, and finished second three times. The icing on the cake this year is that Colapinto also provisionally qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris next summer. This is an accomplishment that he is proud to share with his biggest supporters.
"I'm super excited to be able to represent Team USA, at the Olympics and it's crazy because I never even thought about it when I was a little kid," he said. "Like, it was never really like a dream of mine because it wasn't even a thing. So it's nuts to be now in the Olympics, and now it's like for my family and my grandparents and stuff. It's crazy. Because like, that's the biggest deal ever to them. So it's cool that I can like represent my family at the Olympics."
There is one more regular season stop on the WSL CT, The SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro. That event will take place on the very wave that the Olympic competition will be held, a massive wave called Teahupoʻo. Colapinto plans to use his visualization to make the most of his trip to Tahiti, before the Olympic Games.
Watch as Colapinto and the rest of the WSL surfers hit the water at The SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro beginning on Aug. 11 on Worldsurfleague.com or on WSL on YouTube.