After a half-day of competition on Thursday, the Reef Hawaiian Pro is facing a tight schedule in the coming days.
The event — the first leg of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing — started Thursday afternoon at Ali‘i Beach Park in Haleiwa, after small morning waves reached the 2-to-4-foot range in the afternoon.
“We knew a swell was coming so we decided to start and get running,” executive contest director Randy Rarick said. “We are going to condense it into a three-day event instead of four simply because the weather pattern is showing us only a couple more days of surf and nothing behind it.”
Heat times have been cut to 20 minutes in attempt to finish the contest early.
“We will be going full bore all day (today) and Saturday,” Rarick said. “We will have a half-day left for Sunday. If it’s no good then we will just have to wait and take what we can get.”
Competition was fierce during Thursday’s shortened session, with surfers eager to make heats.
Hawaii’s Mason Ho found a gem of a wave in the last heat, earning the day’s highest score with an 8.93 to win the heat. Ho got barreled twice on a nice right before attempting a 360-degree air maneuver on the end section.
“It was a fun wave,” Ho said. “I love getting barreled out here. I am really stoked because I have not made a heat in a while.”
Kauai’s Koa Smith won his heat with some committed backside surfing. It was the 17-year-old’s first time in the contest.
“I have watched this event my whole life since I was 4 years old, watching Sunny (Garcia) and Mick (Fanning), so to be apart of this event is amazing,” Smith said.
Other Hawaii surfers to advance were Torrey Meister, Dege O’Connell, Tanner Hendrickson, Billy Kemper, Hank Gaskell, Koa Smith, Alex Smith and Kekoa Bacalso. Former winners Joel Centeio and Pancho Sullivan were eliminated.
