HALE‘IWA — Several of Hawai‘i’s top surfers made it through to Round 3 of the Reef Hawaiian Pro, yesterday, in Hale‘iwa. Kaua‘i’s Evan Valiere safely made it through with a second-place finish in Round 2 (finishing behind Australia’s Jarrad Howse)
HALE‘IWA — Several of Hawai‘i’s top surfers made it through to Round 3 of the Reef Hawaiian Pro, yesterday, in Hale‘iwa.
Kaua‘i’s Evan Valiere safely made it through with a second-place finish in Round 2 (finishing behind Australia’s Jarrad Howse) and went one to finish second again in Round 3.
Fred Pattachia, Flynn Novak, Tonino Benson, Sunny Garcia, Joel Centeio, Makuakai Rothman, Dusty Payne and Valiere all finished within the top two of their heats yesterday.
Hawai‘i’s Hank Gaskell cranked out the highest heat score of the event: 18.8 against Hugo Savalli, Corey Ziems and Brad Ettinger in his Round 2 heat. Gaskell is slated to take the water again when Round 3 resumes again today.
Kekoa Bacalso, T.J. Barron, Valiere, Rothman and defending Reef Hawaiian Pro champion Roy Powers are all sitting comfortably awaiting their challengers for Round 4.
But it was Huntington Beach surfer Brett Simpson who notched a memorable day yesterday posting the highest wave score with a 9.93 out of a possible 10, in Round 3. Simpson won his four-man heat ahead of three of Hawai‘i’s best surfers, including world No. 11 Fred Pattachia.
“This is one of my better events and the waves are super good and fit my surfing,” said Simpson. “It’s pretty high performance. It’s just like surfing Lowers just a little bit more powerful. When you get a score like that, even if you get a 5-something you’re still in the 14 total and that means guys need two 7’s, which is totally possible when the waves are this amazing.”
The star of Thursday’s opening day of competition, Mark Occhilupo of Australia was eliminated in yesterday by fellow Australian Daniel Ross and long-time tour rival Garcia.
Ross was on fire in the peeling rights and Garcia was laying down his trademark Hale‘iwa power gouge, but Occhilupo was unable to achieve the same degree of verticality and power on his backhand in the head-high surf.
The final scoreline showed Ross’ two-wave total at 15.67 out of 20, Garcia with 14.9, Brazil’s William Cardoso with 8.56, and Occhilupo with just one wave: a 4.17 point ride.
“It’s nice surfing against both those guys,” said Ross. “Sunny and Occ are such good surfers over here. To get a heat win felt really good. I’ve got so much respect for those guys. They’re such good surfers over here and I’ve followed them for years. And, a lot of surfers that are in this contest competing have seen them in videos or watched them live. That’s why surfing is where it is today because of Sunny and Occ. It’s a trip to be competing against them.”
The men’s competition resumes today. The start of the women’s competition was called of yet again yesterday. A call for it should be made early this morning.
