Sandy Beach, Oahu, HAWAII – (September 3, 2016) — The Hawaii Bodyboarding Pro Tour ran the remaining divisions of the Ala Moana Bowls Challenge, an event that was canceled on August 6 due to a sewage spill, in 6-10 foot conditions today at Sandy Beach. The divisions included Drop Knee, Stand Up and Juniors.
“This was a difficult week for contest preparation,” said Tour Organizer Norm Skorge. “Forty-eight hours ago, we nearly called the event off due to complications. Looking at the forecast at Sandy Beach, we knew we were going to be somewhere in between epic conditions and having to call the contest off for the day. Luckily, we were closer to the epic side of things.”
One of many standouts from today’s heats was 15-year-old Kawika Kamai, who not only nailed the highest single wave score of the day – a 9.5 out of 10 – he also surfed in each of the finals with little rest in between, and won the Juniors Division.
“I surf everyday and I think that’s enough training to do something like this, mustering the strength to get it through each of the finals,” Kawika said.
As each heat took to the water, the maxing, 10-foot sets were a reminder of the storm system that remained just off the coast from the contest site.
“I was excited to hear that we would be finishing the Ala Moana Bowls heats at Sandy Beach,” said Dave Hubbard after laying claim to first place in the Drop Knee Division. “We didn’t expect this kind of swell, but we were blessed with some pretty large lefts so mahalo nui to Lester for cruising past us, not hitting us and delivering some swell.”
“I thought the waves would be 30 feet,” said the Stand Up champion Mack Crilley. “I didn’t know that Sandy Beach could hold that size of this swell. I just stuck to the inside, and a big thanks to my supporters, my family and sponsors.”
“It was a great event today and Sunday and Monday is shaping up to be even better,” said Skorge.
Tomorrow’s event – the Sandy Beach Challenge – will commence at 7 am. Drop Knee, Juniors, Masters and Standup Divisions will run, and the contest will wrap up on Monday with the Men and Women’s division.
FULL RESULTS:
Stand Up
1 Mack Crilley
2 Sammy Morretino
3 Kawika Kamai
4 Bud Miyamoto
Junior Division
1 Kawika Kamai
2 Tanner McDaniel
3 Cordon Stapp
4 Kellen Yamasaki
Drop Knee
1 Dave Hubbard
2 Cole Hansen
3 Bud Miyamoto
4 Kawika Kamai
Remaining events in the 2016 Hawaii Bodyboarding Pro Tour:
Makapu’u DropKnee Challenge (October 29-30)
Millers Surf Big Island Challenge (mid-November)