Competition is good for business, and in surfing friendly competition is good for the sport. You can offer parental advice, go over films and tactics, but the one thing that drives Kaua‘i’s young riders to greater heights of performance is
Competition is good for business, and in surfing friendly competition is good for the sport. You can offer parental advice, go over films and tactics, but the one thing that drives Kaua‘i’s young riders to greater heights of performance is the spirit of a friendly competitive session on an uncrowded day.
On Aug. 5, the waves were virtually perfect rights and lefts and reforms and even a mini-barrel or two were discovered by the body boarders in the early morning.
Mikey Petro proved his worth by taking home first place trophies in the 13-15 year old division and the Drop Knee divisions. Jeremy Ferguson maintained his dominance with a win in the 16-and-up division and in the 12-and-under grouping, Roy Carvalho nudged Anabelle Marvin in some fun surf and fun times.
Then with the onset of surfing, things got a little fierce. In the 12-and-under open division, the girls challenged the boys with some spectacular waves and rides.
Little Luke Hitchcock was a consistent shredder throughout the competition, as was Keola Carreira.
And though both Leila Hurst and Nage Melamed gave the boys a solid run for their money, Luke captured first place. Leila came in second and Keola bettered Nage’s waves for a third place finish, giving the boys some bragging rights, though the girls kept them in tune throughout the day.
In the boys 13-14-year-old division, Koa Smith emerged from the outside lefts, which he connected to the inside with some power surfing that slashed the inside right to shreds. Even Carreira couldn’t stop Smith, who had just returned from a lengthy trip to Samoa the day before. Hitchcock continued to surf strong but was only able to muster a third place finish in the division.
It should be noted that the top three riders were surfing out of their age grouping, being only 10 and 11 years old. One might say Kaua‘i has a bright future with plenty of depth in the world of surfing.
In the girls’ 17-and-under finals, the waves shifted back and forth from a few waves at Smokies to the mid-stream peak and lined up perfectly on the inside right.
Alana Blanchard has learned to surf waves around the world this year and from her string of competitions and free surfs in varying conditions, she made herself at home in the final, capturing the three best set waves of the heat.
Bettering Savannah Sussman’s inside knowledge were Leila Hurst’s consistency and a steep backside lip blast on the outside from Nage Melamed. Sisters Kristen and Erika Steiner’s attempts at high scores also fell short in the smaller waves of the heat.
Most of the girls in the heat surf together on a daily basis and they push each other into new areas of wave riding, bettering their performances on a continuing basis. Look out, world — Kaua‘i’s girls have a lot to offer and they will be strutting their stuff for many years to come. And the lineup of ladies have is far deeper than just those finalists.
The 15-18-year-old boys final on Aug. 6 was one of the most exciting heats of the day. The dying south swell was affected by crossing east swells and strong winds along with shifting tides. This local knowledge of the surf break played an important part in the final results.
As the waves dwindled, power surfing became restricted and tail slides, mini-air reverses and boosts became a necessary move to become champion. This played right into the hands of PK’s favorite son’s Aaron Swanson and Kyle Ramey. Swanson is tough to beat at his home break, especially under these conditions, even against a world class competitor like Kyle Ramey.
Swanson did so against some strong turning action of Ramey and the remaining field of finalists that included a feisty and powerful Kaimana Jaquias, Aaron Hacker, Kyle Galtes and the travel-weary, contest-savvy Alex Smith. They were all no match for Swanson’s adept moves and reformatory knowledge of that inside right hander that took him off the faces of the waves.
The women’s 18-and-up division featured two newcomers to the age bracket. Both Andrianna Mendivil and Mia Melamed just turned 18 this year and they squared off against a field of riders that had the closest judged final of the contest.
The waves lulled out during this heat and the girls continued to try and find an open wave face. Mendivil got the only connecting wave from the outside and carved it through the inside section giving her an advantage midway through the heat.
But with just 45 seconds remaining, Melamed found a peeling right with which she hit four solid turns and back slashed through to the shallow reef, giving her a winning score on one judge’s sheet. But Mendivil inched her out by fractions of a point on the other two score sheets. Finally, Andrianna — who has surfed PK’s for years — emerged as a very graceful winner.
In the older divisions, Max Medeiros and his wife Renee took home the respective men’s 45-and-up and womens 35-and-up trophies.
Craig Balmores continues to turn out wins in the 50-and-up grandmaster division. Kelly Franklin rode home with a first place trophy in the 18-and- up longboard final.
Erika Steiner beat out Aaron Hacker in the 17-and-under longboard final much to the chagrin of Hacker, who received plenty of rabble-rousing from his friends at the banquet hosted by Joe’s on the Green. One of the most exciting heats of the two-day event revealed another blossoming rivalry to come in future years.
Remember these names: Hunter Cabral and Elijah Alderete. These two 4-year-old hard-charging riders had the crowd on their feet, screaming as the keiki pumped, arched and cutback their way into everyone’s hearts.
Little Hunter glided across sections and took down the power pumps of Elijah to bring home a first place honor for the Cabral family.
In all, more than 72 15-minute heats, paddleboard and swimming races, lunches, competition T-shirts and an awards banquet filled in two full days of competition that raised money for the KSA.
This annual contest serves as a major fundraiser for Kaua‘i’s youths who wish to compete in local, organized amateur contests here on Kaua‘i.
The KSA thanks all of Kaua‘i for their volunteer work, support, participation, donations, respect for Mother Nature in and out of the water and friendly, competitive respect for each other.
And we all respect the versatile Jeremy “Skiz” Doudt on his fourth consecutive win, after eight years running, for being the overall open surfing champion of the contest.
