The top of the Qualifying Series leaderboard looks a lot different after Saturday’s conclusion of the Ballito Pro in South Africa. One of the big movers was Oahu’s Seth Moniz, who got all the way to the semifinals at this first QS 10,000 contest of the year.
The third-place result brings Moniz up into second place for the season as he eyes what could be his first real shot at qualifying for the world tour. Moniz also has a runner-up showing at the QS 6,000 Chiba Open earlier this year, helping to put him into what is currently a qualifying position.
Moniz picked up a critical fifth-round win against veteran Jeremy Flores, then managed to get past Brazilian Krystian Kymerson in the quarterfinals. That set up a semifinal showdown with Peterson Crisanto, which unfortunately went the Brazilian’s way from the get go. Moniz made a late charge and continued to attack each wave that showed any signs of life, but he ended up on the short end of a 16.43 to 14.60 result. Moniz’s losing total would have been the winner in the other semifinal, but it was clearly Crisanto’s day.
He went on to win the contest and jumps all the way into first place on the QS rankings for the year, though Moniz is just 770 points behind. Though not a new name on the scene, this is Crisanto’s most notable accomplishment to date. After a few active seasons, he didn’t surf the tour in either 2015 or 2016, but he returned last year and ended up 50th on the QS. Now he holds the top spot and seems ready to take on all comers from here on out.
Moniz still needs to add some more results to his ledger, but he certainly has the opportunities to do so. With just the two major scores, he has three results of 900 points or fewer to replace. There are five more QS 10,000 contests and any decent showing in those events will easily replace those low totals.
But with all those contests remaining, a host of other notable qualifiers will still be aiming to get into the top 10. They’ll be able to do so quickly, like Crisanto jumping up 41 spots with his victory. Jack Freestone finished runner-up to Crisanto on Saturday and moved up all the way from 158th to fifth, the biggest leap this season. Many others will have opportunities for similar movement and though Moniz’s position looks good now, the work is long from over.
Qualifiers needed about 16,000 points last season to make this year’s Championship Tour. Moniz currently sits at 12,950 after Saturday, so one more run to a quarterfinal at a QS 10,000 could be enough on its own. Those aren’t easy to come by, but a single deep run could make him a 2019 CT rookie.
This run certainly hasn’t come completely out of the blue, but there have been some other contenders from Hawaii who seemed more likely to be the next CT regular. One of those is Josh Moniz, Seth’s brother, who has improved his QS ranking every year since 2012 and is currently 28th on the leaderboard. Both getting into position to become rookies together would be an incredible story.
But it’s Seth who now leads the pack and has a great shot of reaching his ultimate goal. To do so, he’ll need to keep his head down and continue working as has the past few months. But unless something radically changes down the stretch, it appears more likely than not that we’ll be seeing Seth Moniz on the dream tour next year.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
