The WQS 6 Star Prime Reef Hawaiian Pro resumed Friday, with the men picking up in Round 2 early Friday morning. The swell dropped noticeably over the course of the night, leaving head high to slightly overhead waves, which allowed for more high performance surfing on the lined up rights that came through.
Standouts on Friday included former World Champ and Hawaiian hero, Sunny Garcia; Aussie top 100 surfer, Jarrad Howse; local boy, Hank Gaskell, who dominated with two near perfect scores of 9.5 and 9.3; young Hawaiian chargers, Dusty Payne, Dustin Cuizon, Makua Rothman, TJ Barron, Flynn Novak, Tonino Benson and Joel Centeio; World Tour surfers, Fred Patacchia (HAW), Jay Thompson (AUS), Luke Munro (AUS), Daniel Ross (AUS) and Kieren Perrow (AUS); Santa Cruz legend, Peter Mel; Brett Simpson (USA); Evan Valiere (HAW); Nic Muscroft (AUS); and former World Tour surfers, Eric Rebiere (FRA) and Nathan Hedge (AUS), among others.
Friday’s upsets included Sebastian “Sea Bass” Zietz, who went down in a heat that was nearly a four-way tie; legendary former World Champ, Mark Occhilupo (AUS); top Japanese surfer, Masatoshi “Mar” Ohno; Dane Gudauskas (USA); top Irish surfer, Glen Hall; Liam McNamara (HAW); young Hawaiian stars, Mason Ho, Jesse Merle-Jones and Gavin Gillette; former World Tour surfers, Brad Gerlach (USA), Shaun Cansdell (AUS) and Raoni Monteiro (BRA); and World Tour surfers, Leonardo Neves (BRA) and Aritz Aranburu (EUK), among others.
Sunny Garcia provided some insightful thoughts on the event and a bit of comic relief from the commentator’s booth. While reading the live comments posted from internet viewers on the event website, Sunny called out an internet viewer who put down Sunny’s surfing. He invited the viewer to Hawaii for a little lesson in respect. Pretty sure that anonymous internet poster won’t be taking Sunny up on that invite anytime soon.
With a continuing drop in the swell expected overnight, it’s unlikely that the men’s event will continue on Saturday. With only two days needed to wrap up the event, we’re certain to see another swell roll through in the nine days remaining in the event window. Tune in to the event website on Saturday morning for a possible start to the women’s event.
http://triplecrownofsurfing.com/
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