General

Results in for 2010 NSSA Hawaii Regional Championships March 23, 2010 PRESS RELEASE

On March 13, 2010, the first day of the Hawaii Regional Championships kicked off at Kewalo Basin. The competitors were greeted with contestable two foot surf and the day was blazing hot. The championships opened up on day one with the premier Open divisions. To no one's surprise, Isaiah Moniz was tearing it up and made 2 finals in the Open Men's and Juniors divisions. Unfortunately he just came short of victory in both divisions with an impressive double runner-up showing. Tanner Hendrickson was sizzling hot taking total command with a three-division sweep in Open Men's, Explorer Men's and Explorer Juniors. Tanner has had one sensational season taking conference titles in Open and Explorer Men's and surely made a statement in his graduating season with NSSA. Look for Tanner to bring his "A" game to the Nationals! Lahiki Minamishin led the charge in the hotly contested Junior's category taking the win. Wyatt McHale ripped his way to his first Regional victory in the Open Mini Grom division. On day two, the competition grew more intense and we had some serious performance highlights in the heats. The judges threw Seth Moniz a perfect 10 score in the Open Boys final. Seth was on a mission taking the victory in the Explorer Menehuene as well. Kaulana Apo, who posted an excellent 9.5 score, shredded to a runner-up placing in the Open Boys and third in the Explorer Menehuene. Cayla Moore, younger sister of 11-time National Champion Carissa Moore, made two finals in Explorer Womens and Girls. Carissa was on the beach cheering on her little sister. Looks like another Moore could be making noise at the Nationals this June! In the Open Womens, Tatiana Weston Webb was ripping and claimed her first major NSSA title in the Open Womens.

A huge thanks goes out to all of the NSSA Hawaii surfers, coaches and parents. Also many thanks to the NSSA staff, judges, Aunty Miko, Aunty Amy, Aunty Laura and Aunty Lauren.

The NSSA Hawaii Regional Championships was sponsored by RVCA, Vans, Xcel, Wahoo's, Jason Nalu Bogle, Kalani Robb, Surfco, Honu Group, Rockwell watches and ASP Hawaii.

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast

Milestone: Fred Patacchia surfs 150th Dream Tour heat

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 27 February, 2010 : - - In heat 15 today, Fred Patacchia surfed in his 150th Dream Tour heat in his 6th year on tour. He went down to rookie Owen Wright in a great heat, but at the end of the day, he will probably want to forget heat number 150.

Fred has had a great career to date, 54 events... 150 heats... 69 wins... 46% win ratio... (17 finals) 9 quarters... 6 semis... 2 finals... 0 wins Fred’s best season was in 2008 when he finished 12th.

The two things about Freddy that really stick in my mind are his two 2nd placings and those events. In 2006 he posted a 19.60 in round 4 in Tahiti and went on to lose to first time winner Bobby Martinez in a first class final 16.26 to 16.07. And in 2008 he posted a 19.50 in round 4 in Indo to go out to another first time winner Bruce Irons in a one sided final.

Good luck Fred I hope there is another 150 to come…

Aussies Anthony Walsh & Mark Mathews 2nd & 3rd, Fuller 4th

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 1 February, 2010 : - - Pipeline -- Prayers, plundered surfboards and Pipeline perfection were the order of the final day of the Volcom Pipeline Pro, and local boy Jamie O'Brien avoided the drama to walk away with the win. O'Brien, 26, clinched his third Pipeline Pro title today to take home $16,000 and 2,000 ASP World Qualifying Series ratings points. Surf for the final day was in the range of 10-15-foot wave face heights.

Australian pair Anthony Walsh and Mark Mathews were second and third respectively in the final, both breaking surfboards and forced to swim to the beach during the 45-minute bout. Fourth place was Hawaii's Danny Fuller, who posted the day's only perfect 10 during his semi-final heat but was unable to exit several deep tubes in the final that might have scored the same.

Two high scores - 8.77 and 8.23 - sealed the deal for O'Brien, giving him a two-wave total of 17.0 out of a maximum 20.

The highest scoring ride in the final actually belonged to Mathews, who was runner-up to O'Brien here at this same event back in 2007. Despite a horrible start to the heat, Mathews regrouped on a backup board and ended up splitting a peak with O'Brien on the best wave of the final. Mathews opted for the Backdoor, O'Brien took Pipe. Mathews' was a super deep and long barrel, while O'Brien's looked bigger but didn't travel as far.

Mathews was right back in the game with a 9.57 after that, but never managed to secure the second score he needed of 7.43, counting a 4.57 in its place. "I thought I had a good wave and then I heard his score!" said Jamie, of the near-perfect score Mathews got going right on the wave they split.

"I love Pipeline. I kind of talk to it out there. You might think I'm crazy, but I just started praying it was going to go flat in the end, and Mark looks and me and says, 'I bet you're praying that it's going flat', and I was like, yeah! (Laughs.)

"Mark was in the running. I've surfed with him out here before, he's a great surfer, he was ripping. But it's kind of funny, every time you think you have it, you don't have it. I didn't think I had it even with 10 seconds (to go).

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Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship January 28, 2010 Piha Beach, New Zealand

Aussie have done it again - they have clinched their fifth stragiht teams title. They did by way of winning the Under 18 Girls (Tyler Wright) Under 16 Boys (Matt Banting) and Jordi Watson placing runner up in the Under 18 Boys. Braizil take out the Under 18 Boys Division with an astonishing performance from the whizz kid himself Gabriel Medina.

Final Results:

Under 18 Boys Final 1, 19.90, Gabriel Medina, BRA 2, 14.92, Jordin Watson, AUS 3, 14.90, Tamaroa McComb, TAH 4, 12.96, Beyrick de Vries, ZAF

Under 18 Girls Final 1, 16.00, Tyler Wright, AUS 2, 12.74, Alessa Quizon, HAW 3, 9.72, Sarah Baum, ZAF 4, 9.66, Lakey Peterson, USA

Under 16 Boys Final 1, 15.90, Matt Banting, AUS 2, 11.60, Jake Halstead, USA 3, 10.40, Koa Smith, HAW 4, 10.24, Hiroti Arai, JPN

Team USA enjoyed a strong day in the Under 16 Boys with Kolohe Andino, Parker Coffin, Trevor Thorton and Jake Halstead all scoring wins.

San Clemente star Andino, who is competing in his fifth Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship event got busy in the improving conditions, netting both the event's highest individual wave score (9.00) and two-wave combined total (15.75) to advance through to round three ahead of Australian Creed McTaggart (Margaret River). With South Africa's Dylan Lightfoot and Tahiti's Massin O'Neil finishing the heat in third and fourth respectively.

Post heat, Andino said he felt lucky to get his 9-point ride. “I just lucked into that wave,” he said. “Creed McTaggart kind of paddled wide and I just hung where I was. The wave doubled up and I got two good turns in.” Andino added that he was pleased with USA's performance today. “Team USA had a really good day,” he said. “We won all of our heats to go through to the qualifying round. We'll just keep trucking along.”

New Zealand ace Ben Poulter (Raglan) continued his hot run of form, downing no.1 seed Matt Banting (Port Macquarie) to storm into round three of the under 16 boys. “I'm really stoked,” said Poulter. “It was so good to take down the top seed.” It wasn't too bad out there. It was 4-5ft, maybe a little bigger on the sets. But if you got the right wave you could take it right to the beach.”

But it wasn't all smiles today, with repercharge one of the Under 18 Boys division being completed this afternoon. Third and fourth from each heat were eliminated from the prestigious event.

Surfers who were lucky to survive this afternoon included the United Kingdom trio of Alex Baker, Nathan Elms and Matt Chapman, along with Sebastian Correa (Peru), Sidney Grimares (Brazil), Charles Teiki (Tahiti) and Jose Ferreira (Portugal), who all recorded repercharge one wins. All the top seeded nations were able to stay with all their surfers alive in competition.

Contest organizers are highly likely to run round one and two of the U/18 Girls division on the main podium tomorrow, with repercharge one and two of the U/16 Boys and repechage two of the U/18 Boys on podium two.

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Mick Fanning claims second ASP World Title at Pipeline

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 12 December, 2009 : - - Pipeline, North Shiore, Hawaii -- Mick Fanning (AUS), 28, has been crowned the 2009 ASP World Champion, following a stunning performance at the Banzai Pipeline today.

Heading into the final stop of the 2009 ASP World Tour season, Fanning held the ASP ratings’ lead over fellow Gold Coast surfer Joel Parkinson (AUS), 28, and with Parkinson’s Round 3 exit in today’s Billabong Pipe Masters at the hands of wildcard Gavin Gillette (HAW), 23, Fanning secured his second ASP World Title.

“I’m just a bit overwhelmed right now and I don’t quite know what to say,” Fanning said. “It was hard out there. I was trying to get ready for my heat and then Gavin (Gillette) got that one score as I was paddling out and, I don’t know, I just sort of slowed down.”

For the first time since 2003, the ASP World Title came down to the final event of the season at the Billabong Pipe Masters. “This title is way more fun,” Fanning said. “I was much more relaxed for this one – besides the last few days, I was really nervous.” The 2009 ASP World Tour season will go down in history as one of the most dramatic, with Parkinson winning three of the first five events before Fanning rallied in the latter half of the season to overtake his good friend.

“I knew I was surfing well,” Fanning said. “It was just a matter of getting that result. I knew it was going to turn around sooner or later. I don’t know, it’s weird the way the world works.”

Fanning’s 2009 ASP World Tour results are as follows:

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast: Equal 3rd Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach: Equal 5th Billabong Pro Teahupoo: Equal 9th Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro: Equal 5th Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay: Equal 17th Hurley Pro Trestles: WINNER Quiksilver Pro France: WINNER Billabong Pro Mundaka: Equal 9th Rip Curl Pro Search: WINNER Billabong Pipeline Masters: Equal 9th In the end, and reminiscent of Fanning’s 2007 ASP World Title (clinched in Brazil), the lightning-fast natural-footer was in the water with Parkinson (in between heats) as the scene unfolded. The two lifelong friends embraced, exchanged words and paddled in separate directions.

“We just sort of sat there and hugged and chatted about what’s happened over the last few days and how nervous we both were,” Fanning said. “It was hard to watch what happened to him this year. He had such a stranglehold on the tour and then he had that ankle injury, so as a friend it was hard to watch that. If I wasn’t in the race I would have been gunning for Joel for sure.”

For securing the 2009 ASP World Title, Fanning has also been awarded and extra $50,000 from the Vans Triple Threat bonus package.

While the 2009 ASP World Title has been decided, the 2009 ASP World Tour season is far from over with one more day of competition remaining at the Billabong Pipe Masters. Following his clinching of the 2009 ASP World Title, Fanning fell to Dean Morrison (AUS), 28, in the opening heat of Round 4.

San Clemente's Greg Long, who has emerged in recent years as the world's premier big-wave surfer, added another major accomplishment to his resume by winning the prestigious Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau contest Tuesday at Waimea Bay on Oahu's North Shore.

With enormous waves pumping in from the north, Long survived a nearly sheer drop down one of the larger set waves late in the event's final heat. Judges scored the ride a perfect 100, which helped propel Long past Kelly Slater, who had led through most of the daylong competition.

The mountainous wave, with a face exceeding 40 feet, exploded at Long's heels and a towering wall of whitewater swept over him like a horizontal avalanche. He received the score on the heaviness factor and the potential consequences if he did not make the drop.

"I'm humbled just to be in this event," Long said afterward of a competition that honors a legendary North Shore waterman and is held only on years when truly epic conditions exist.

Long, a regular standout in the yearlong Billabong XXL Big-Wave Awards, caught another wave as the heat drew to a close, for a lesser score, but it was enough to give him a 10-point lead over Slater in the best-four-scores format.

Waimea was at its earth-shaking best, with the swell holding most of the day and pulsing even larger toward the end of the competition, which featured literally dozens of remarkable rides, but also breath-taking wipeouts, broken boards and the world's elite big-wave surfers thrilling crowd of thousands by charging all the way into the 15-foot shore break.

This marks only the eighth time in 25 years the Aikau contest was held. Slater, who has an unprecedented nine ASP World Tour titles, won the Aikau event in 2002. Bruce Irons, who finished fourth Tuesday, was the defending champion after winning in 2004. Sunny Garcia, a former world champion, was third.

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