Maui’s Kai Barger stood out on Day 1 of the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach on Tuesday.
Rowdy 6- to 8-foot waves greeted surfers on the first day of the second jewel of the Triple Crown of Surfing.
The Prime rated event is the last one of the year for the World Qualifying Series. The top 10 surfers in the series will move up to the World Championship Tour next season. Dreams are made and broken at this event every year.
Barger, a goofy-footer, posted the day’s highest single-wave score with an 8.93 (out of 10) as well as the highest combined two-wave total of 15.70 (out of 20).
The win, however did not come easy. Barger was in an elimination position until he caught his high-scoring wave at the tail end of his heat.
"I was panicking before I caught that wave because I never felt comfortable the whole time," Barger said. "I just got lucky. I just swung, caught the wave, and it turned out to be good and that’s all I can say."
Barger’s high-scoring wave saw him drop in and then totally dismantle the wave, going top to bottom three times, throwing tons of spray toward the sky with each snap turn.
"That was the first time ever where I managed to hold my bottom turn," Barger said. "Usually I will just skip over and fall flat on my face when I’m going that fast. But luckily my board held in and one snap led to the next and I did three. It was the best wave I ever got out there,"
Another local boy to come from behind and win his heat was 17-year-old Seth Moniz, who rose from third position to the top in the final three minutes.
Moniz caught a bomb set and proceeded to attack the wave with a big snap in the lip to start. He then threw a nice carve in the pocket and finished with a wild snap that saw him just hang on by his tip-toes. The score was an 8.50, the second-highest single-wave score on Tuesday.
"The waves are really tough; it’s about as hard as Sunset gets right here," Moniz said. "I’m stoked to come out of that heat with a win."
Sunset is known as a grueling wave and Moniz credits his dad in helping him with conditioning.
"My dad’s been on a pretty gnarly diet for the last three months, training a lot, doing yoga, and it’s cool to see that and so I am trying to get on that program now. It’s fun," Moniz said.
Defending champion Ezekiel Lau advanced along with favorites Pancho Sullivan, Ian Walsh and Billy Kemper. Shock eliminations came from Sunny Garcia, Joel Centeio and Hank Gaskell.
Top internationals to advance were Vasco Ribeiro (Portugal), Nathan Hedge (Australia), Marc Lacomare (France) and Ramzi Boukhiam (Morocco).
Competition will resume on the next contestable day of surf.
Manuel wins heat at Target Maui
Hawaii’s Malia Manuel won her heat on the first day of the Target Maui Pro at Honolua Bay.
Manuel finished her heat with a two-wave score of 15.67 to advance directly to the third round. Australia’s Tyler Wright had the day’s high score of 18.90 to claim her heat.
Hawaii surfers Carissa Moore (13.84), Coco Ho (5.67) and Alana Blanchard (12.10) finished second in their respective heats to advance to round 2. Alessa Quizon (10.57) and Paige Alms (4.17) finished third in their heats and also advanced to round 2.
