Preview
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Final
The first (half) day of the Reef Hawaiian Pro rushed to start yesterday at Alii Beach Park. With only a small window of northwest swell in the forecast, contest directors were forced to run yesterday. When the Round of 128 competitors rocked up to Haleiwa in the early morning there were literally no waves. The swell began to show around mid-morning. At 11:30 am the first jewel of the 30th Annual Vans Triple Crown of Surfing was underway with blustery tradewinds and 4 to 6-foot faces.
When Haleiwa is chest to head high, the lefts hold the scoring potential, and it's really anybody's game out there. Local favorites like former Reef Hawaiian Pro champions Joel Centeio and Roy Powers were eliminated in the first round. While visiting surfers like France's Marc Lacomare and Australia's Nathan Hedge dominated their heats.
"I think with the waves being smaller like this it gives the other guys who aren't from Hawaii a little bit of a better chance because a lot of us who grew up in Hawaii are used to surfing big, powerful waves," said Maui's Billy Kemper, "Out there, it was who got the right waves and who fought the hardest for it."
Kemper won his heat with a two-wave total of 11.20 out of a possible 20 points, riding his "groveler," a 5'9" shaped by Kazuma. While Haleiwa is known as a world-class right, the 22-year-old, regular foot utilized the lefts to move onto the next round.
"It was really slow and there wasn't a lot of opportunity, so when you got that wave you really had to make use of it and make sure you got a score out of it. It wasn't like you were going to get a bunch of opportunities to get good waves out there," said a relieved Kemper after the heat.
Although the majority of the day was wave-starved, Haleiwa turned on for the last heat. Hawaiians Mason Ho and Kekoa Bacalso reveled in the head high to overhead set waves pulsing in the evening, and both advanced into the next round.
Ho earned the highest two-wave total of the day, a 15.60. The 24-year-old from Sunset Point also had the best ride of the event so far: 8.93 out of a possible 10 points, for a double-barrel and an incomplete air over the Haleiwa Toilet Bowl section.
"I kind of got ahead of myself," said Mason, who is the son of Michael Ho and nephew of former World Champ Derek. "I saw the air section out of the second barrel and I was already thinking, 'ok what grab?', and I wasn't even out of the barrel and that's what dad says: 'don't ever get ahead of yourself.'"
Without getting too ahead of ourselves, the Reef Hawaiian Pro is looking to crank out a full day of competition Friday and Saturday before the swell is gone. According to contest directors, there is a strong possibility that Sunday will be the final day of competition for the first jewel of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.