Surfers Andrianna Mendivil, Ashley Fagerstedt and Alana Blanchard took 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in the girls division of the Hawaii Amateur Surfing Association state championships held Sunday, giving Kauai a sweep. Mendivil is a South Shore surfer, Fagerstedt hails
Surfers Andrianna Mendivil, Ashley Fagerstedt and Alana Blanchard took 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in the girls division of the Hawaii Amateur Surfing Association state championships held Sunday, giving Kauai a sweep.
Mendivil is a South Shore surfer, Fagerstedt hails from Wailua and Blanchard is a Hanalei resident.
The girls, along with a long list of other Kauai shortboarders, longboarders and bodyboarders did well in the amateur surfing event held at the Ala Moana Bowl’s surf break located makai of the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu.
Junior surfer Zach Arreola of Kilauea won the Open Men division, and Mia Melamed of Hanalei took second in the girl’s longboard event.
Mendivil’s win surprised her.
“I’m pretty happy, definitely not expecting it,” she said in a call to her South Shore home. “I hope to compete as long as it stays fun,” she said, crediting her father, John Mendivil and local surfers with helping her to train and in picking up competition tips.
Mendivil just turned 15 and will be sophomore at Kauai High School in the fall.
She’s a regular at “PK’s” at Kukuiula outside of Koloa, and is sponsored by Excel wetsuits and the Poipu Beach-based Nukumoi Surf Company.
Kauai shaper Max Medeiros, owner of Hawaiian Blades surfboards, shapes most of her surfboards.
Mendivil said there was a mixture of long lulls and large sets, with faces up to 15 foot, or about 8 foot in the traditional Hawaiian measurement of waves.
She said she is still up in the air about traveling to Southern California the end of the month for the national amateur surfing championship. Mendivil, along with other top finishers from Kauai at the HASA meet, qualified for the national surf-off.
An upset in the contest was the loss in a preliminary round by recent Local Motion “Surf Into Summer” open women’s winner Bethany Hamilton of Princeville. Hamilton and other Kauai amateur surfers are scheduled to travel to Oceanside, Calif. and to Trestles, a break in southern Orange County, for two national amateur events. The National Scholastic Surfing Association is at Trestles.
Results:
Shortboard surfing, girls: Andrianna Mendivil 1st; Ashley Fagerstedt 2nd; Alana Blanchard 3rd.
Boys shortboard: Chris Eneim from the North Shore, 4th; Keale Chung of Kilauea, 6th.
Junior Men: Gavin Gillette of Kilauea, 2nd; Zach Arreola of Kilauea, 3rd.
Men: Cisco Kay, son of former Hanalei resident Jim Kay, 2nd.
Open Men: Zach Arreola, 1st.
Grandmasters, shortboard: Nelson Togioka from the Westside, 2nd; Craig Balmores, 5th.
Legends: Roger Kinneman, South Shore, 4th.
Air Show: Cisco Kay, tied for 2nd.
Longboard surfing, girls: Mia Melamed, 2nd; Bethany Hamilton, 3rd.
Junior Men, bodyboarding: Pyper Luellen of Moloaa.
