Florence wins close one

The John John Florence positive vibration train kept rolling Friday.

The new World Surf League champion edged Portugal’s Frederico Morais for the Hawaiian Pro championship by the smallest possible margin, and it happened at his home break, Haleiwa’s Alii Beach Park.

Florence did it with his ever-prevalent no-pressure attitude now that the world title has been his since October.

“The final was a super-close heat,” Florence said. “Frederico got two scores that were a hundredth of a point below. For me, I don’t have the pressure, so I was just like ‘OK, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. I’m just surfing and I’d love to win this event.’ ”

Super close, indeed. Florence was hanging on to the slimmest of leads as the last minute of the 35-minute heat approached. Actually, those two leaders in the four-man heat were tied with two-wave totals of 15.66, but Florence was considered ahead because of his higher single wave of 8.83.

With just under a minute to go, Morais got up and riding and went for it hard. When the heat ended, the judges still hadn’t posted his score, so onlookers waited a few minutes for the verdict. Morais needed a 7.34 for the win, but wound up with his second 7.33 of the final — one-hundredth of a point short.

Florence carved up three powerful complete turns for that 8.83, squeezing everything he could out of the wave and nearly completing a fourth turn. In retrospect, had he not gone all out on it, second place was a distinct possibility.

“I dropped in, did one turn and then tried to change it up with a different type of turn and change it up again on the last one,” he said. “And then I tried to get a fourth one and was just a little bit late on the inside.”

For Morais, who is hovering around the cut line for qualifying for the tour next year, it was a great finish even though he didn’t win.

“I had priority, I waited,” he said about the late moments of the final. “I was hoping for a wave. It came. Unfortunately, I only got a 7.33 and not a 7.34. But I’m happy with my surfing and the way I competed and managed all my heats. John John is one of the best surfers in the world, if not the best. Now, I’m heading to Sunset, looking for points on qualifying.”

Florence won all four of his heats Friday — in the fourth round, quarterfinals, semifinals and final.

France’s Marc Lacomare placed third and Australia’s Adrian Buchan was fourth.

Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater was eliminated in the quarters, and two Hawaii world tour surfers, Keanu Asing and Sebastian Zietz, were bounced in the fourth round.

The Hawaiian Pro is the first event in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, with the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach and the Billabong Pipe Masters at Ehukai Beach to follow. The Triple Crown title goes to the best surfer among the three events combined.

“I’m just going to do the same thing,” Florence said about the next two contests, where he will try to win a third career Triple Crown. He won it in 2011 and 2013. “It’s right down the street from my house. I’m going to go and surf my heats. It seems to have worked out here, so I’ll stick with the same plan. Sunset and Haleiwa are real fun events, but my main goal right now is win the Pipe Masters.”