Day 1 or the Reef Hawaiian Pro got off to an early start on the very first day of the 12 day waiting period. The Reef Hawaiian Pro is a 6* World Qualifying Series event and the first of 3 events for the Men to decide the Triple Crown of Surfing Champion.
Yesterday the conditions were barely average on a local scale. The swell direction was coming in predominantly Easterly which totally misses Haleiwa. The waves were huge at Puena Point just to the right side of the event and at Paradise and Avalanche to the left. Nonetheless it was a great call by Randy Rarrick and Marty Thomas to get the event running.
Despite the waves only being in the 1-2 foot range the surfers in the Rounds of 136 and 128 made the most of the lackluster conditions. In an event which Haleiwa is the star, the roles were reversed and it was the surfers who could perform the best maneuvers in their respective 25 minute heats that got the shine.
The boys who were featured in “North Shore” issue of Contrast in the Icons 2 segment did great! Hank Gaskell continued his success from his Xcel Pro win last week with a heat win at Haleiwa. Hanko managed to boost one of the few air 360’s of day one’s competition.
Joel Centeio is a former finalist here in this event, he made his intentions known that he wants to take this event in ‘09! Joel out-surfed his other competitors and has been spending a lot of time practicing out here at Alii’s. Looks like the practice and training is paying off!
Moody is Reef’s Haleiwa Ambassador. Sean grew up surfing Haleiwa from day 1. He’s been a big part of Reef supporting a major WQS at Haleiwa. It’s key having someone like Sean in the Reef family, because he looks after both the traveling competitor’s and the local’s best when the call needs to be made. Stay tuned for Sean’s upcoming feature in Contrast’s Travel Issue.
The entire Round of 128, Heats 1-16 were scheduled to surf until the end of the day. With the swell dying down and the conditions deteriorating, event officials were on the verge of calling off the event for the day. Just as the 5 min horn sounded (which is when we were supposed to paddle out), Marty Thomas the Vans Triple Crown Managing Director ran up asking if I wanted to surf or not.
At first I was a little hesitant, but I had been down at Haleiwa before the sunrise, watched the conditions for a good 8 hours and watched every heat analyzing what it takes to win. Within an instant I yelled, eh were on , I’m out there and TJ Barron and the other competitors jumped into the water. I was confident, I wanted to win! The feeling of confidence is usually confused with pressure of competition, but I wasn’t feeling it for once and I knew I had to surf. What a good choice it was! Both TJ and I were able to advance to the next round of competition.
I’ve attached some of the heats on demand for you to watch. To check out all of the event’s coverage click the links below.
photos courtesy of Surfline.com/Sean Rowland
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