“El Salvador is always so good to me,” said Marks, splitting her time between her residence in California and another in central Florida. Being from Florida, this is a short flight and the waves are really nice.”

Using her consistent backhand, with big, powerful snaps, Marks scored a pair of 7.40 rides, the first a four-turn combination at the 14-minute mark, but it took a late three-turn combo with huge, spraying vertical snaps to actually clinch it. That forced Bryan, Marks’ “really good friend,” to require a 7.57 (instead of a 7.47) and she nearly responded, with a 7.53 on her final ride.

“I’m really happy,” Marks said. “That’s why I’m here. I want to win as many world titles as I can, and I’m super aware of how hard it is to get one, but I just need to focus on myself and my performances. I would absolutely love to go back-to-back to be the world champion but, for now, I’m just going to enjoy this.”

In May, Marks reached the semifinals of the Tahiti Pro, the site of the July 27-Aug. 5 Olympics, falling to Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy.

Americans are leading the World Surf League rankings heading into the event in Brazil. Hawaii’s John John Florence, who scored a rare, unanimous 10.0 ride (his 18th career perfect score) with a huge aerial maneuver in the semifinals, and California’s Caitlin Simmers top their respective fields. The top five surfers at the end of the regular season will qualify for the Final Five playoffs. Florence, also a Team USA Olympian, actually clinched a Final Five berth Sunday by defeating Yago Dora in the final, 16.33-14.44, capping an amazing week of surfing. It also was his fourth final this season.

Cocoa Beach’s Kelly Slater, 52, not eligible to compete for the world title as a part-time wild-card entry, looked sharp again in his appearance in Tahiti last month, reaching the quarterfinals before bowing out against Ramzi Boukhiam, who rallied for a 17.33-16.66 win. Slater had thrilled the crowd with a last-minute rally to defeat Ethan Ewing .

Bands, a fashion show and a beach bike benefit raffle will be just part of the all-day Locals Only Surf Film Fest Saturday, on International Surfing Day, at Longdoggers in Satellite Beach, capped by the 6-8 p.m. Watch Party with former world champion CJ Hobgood as a celebrity judge … Executive Director John Hughes and the Florida Surf Museum in Cocoa Beach were the beneficiaries of a rare surfboard once made by Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy, thanks to “Balsa Bill” Yerkes, who recently closed his surf shop in Satellite Beach … Palm City’s Zoe Benedetto moved up three notches on the WSL Challenger Series to a 14th-place tie after a ninth-place finish in the Sydney (Australia) Pro, the second of six stops on the qualifying series.