Young surfers stole the show Tuesday during Day 2 of the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach.
Italy’s Leonardo Fiovaranti, 16, had the top heat score, with Hawaii’s Seth Moniz, 17, right behind.
Waves were in the 6- to 8-foot range in this World Qualifying Series and the second stop in the Vans Triple Crown.
Moniz posted a two-wave score of 16.14 out of 20 with his new-school style of power surfing.
His high score of 9.17 saw him attack the lip three times on a set wave with full commitment and no hesitation. He backed it up with a nice tube ride. Taking off deep on the point, he tucked into a nice barrel and made it out the other end as the wave crashed around him.
"I felt pretty comfortable," Moniz said. "I wasn’t really nervous because I had no real pressure on me, as I was just going out there to have fun."
Moniz has a casual approach and humble demeanor, yet he knows what’s on the line for the other surfers in his heat looking for qualification points.
"You have to feel bad for some of the guys because they’re doing this and are trying to qualify for the WCT (World Championship Tour) right now and some of them are on the bubble and some of them are trying to make the 100 cut off for the prime events," he said. "But I just go out there and surf a heat like any other heat I would surf."
Fiovaranti currently sits 25th on the WQS, with the top 14 qualifying for the world tour next year. A finals berth here would make him the first Italian ever on the world tour.
Fiovaranti nailed the highest heat total of the day with a 16.17 score on two solid waves. His high score of 9.07 saw him link four solid top-to-bottom maneuvers.
"It would mean the world for me and for Italy because there has never been a surfer from Italy that has gone this far," Fiovaranti said. "If I can keep going, I have so much support from back home. Hopefully we keep getting some more good waves and the luck will go my way."
Other top heat scores belonged to Keanu Asing, Davy Cathels, Conner O’Leary, Glenn Hall and Lucas Silveira.
Current world No. 6 Joel Parkinson pulled out due to an injury he suffered at Pipeline.
Competition will resume on the next day of quality waves.
