Many of Kaua‘i’s and Hawai‘i’s young amateur surfers headed to Southern California for the NSSA National Surfing Championships. The competition began at Salt Creek in Dana Point with preliminary rounds in all Explorer Divisions, then moved onto San Clemente’s world-famous
Many of Kaua‘i’s and Hawai‘i’s young amateur surfers headed to Southern California for the NSSA National Surfing Championships.
The competition began at Salt Creek in Dana Point with preliminary rounds in all Explorer Divisions, then moved onto San Clemente’s world-famous Lower Trestles surf break for final rounds as well as the prestigious Open division.
Last year the waves cooperated but the water temperature plunged below 54 degrees leading up to the contest. This year the water warmed up to over 68 degrees, giving our Hawai‘i surfers an opportunity to perform in a more comfortable environment.
The waves at Trestles however never really arrived. These sort of conditions can level the playing field. Some heats found the surfers riding up to 22 waves in the 15-minute heat period while other heats featured less than 10 waves to be ridden. And when a set of waves did arrive there paddle battles, bumping of boards and plenty of interference calls tagged onto surfers trying to advance. There was a record seven triangles or interference infractions in one heat alone, and many surfers absorbed two triangles in one heat which automatically eliminated them from advancing.
In all, the live scoring, the computer judging and the new four-man Open Division format for both the men and women were most successful in creating an exciting contest as well as preparing the kids for their futures in this ever-growing sport and industry.
In the most crucial Open divisions, Hawai‘i outsurfed the rest of the field and had 18 of the 24 placings on the final day of competition.
In the Explorer divisions, 30 out of 36 surfers made their way to finals in six different divisions.
More than 1000 slots initially were made available during first rounds of all the competition. Hawai‘i had 48 of the 60 finalists still standing. Kaua‘i had its fair share of usual standouts. Surfers who advanced to the finals who represented our island and our state quite well were as follows.
Alex Smith from Kilauea made two finals. Alex captured second place in the Explorer Junior division falling to the swift powerful and versatile Kai Barger from Maui.
In the highly heralded 35-minute Open Mens final four, Alex qualified by taking down last year’s champion Kekoa Cazimero in a three-man semi-final that also featured Mainland standout Corey Arrambide. The Open Mens final was the last heat of the 10-day contest, and it found very few waves to be ridden.
Kona’s Tonino Benson and Ventura’s Arrambide caught heat breaking waves in the last two minutes that basically determined the outcome. Benson was crowned the winner. Smith to third.
Dylan Melamed from Hanalei had a similar result.
In his quarter final in the Explorer Mens division he not only outshone Cazimero and Granger Larsen, but knocked each of them out of the competition. In capturing first place in that round, he advanced straight to the finals. In his final heat, however, that featured six surfers, there was a total of 11 waves ridden in a 20-minute interval, Melamed finished fourth overall.
Koa Smith qualified for three division finals, giving him an opportunity to win a triple crown. However, lack of waves, and a multitude of triangles created havoc in many of his heats and Koa had to settle for placings behind many of his Hawai‘i friends in the Open boys, Explorer boys and Explorer Menehune divisions.
In the Open Boys division, Kaua‘i’s Luke Hitchcock settled for fourth place overall because of the lack of ridable waves that could display his talent.
On the female front, four ladies showed their talent when the pressure was on.
Alana Blanchard surfed strong throughout the contest and in the Open Womens Division which featured only four surfers. She found herself in the perfect position to win the title before heading off to the World Qualifying Series and a bright future in the world of professional surfing.
Carissa Moore was a stumbling block that put excessive pressure on all the competitors. Blanchard applied some Hawaiian-style carves at the bottoms of some decent waves only to find the waves stalling and not cooperating with her patented slashing cutbacks. Blanchard wound up in fourth place behind Sage Ericson, Coco Ho and the 11-time national champion, Moore.
Leila Hurst of Kilauea was quite busy over the ten day contest period. Capturing the best waves in most of her heats and riding them with power and control, Hurst showed no sign of nerves or pressure whatsoever. Her appearance in Australia and Portugal over the past six months has seasoned her style.
In the Explorer Girls final for 14 and Under, Hurst brought home fourth place in a heat that featured very few waves and in the Explorer Womens final she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, having to ride smaller inside waves throughout most of the heat, bringing home the sixth place crown.
In that very same Explorer Womens final, Nage Melamed found herself just a few points behind the leader, Moore. Nage then got a great left-hander that took her all the way to shore, putting her in first place with just a few minutes remaining.
Moore answered with a small but powerful wave that gave her a 7.5 and a lead over Melamed. Then the wave of the heat came barreling through. Nage whipped her board around and, after a strong bottom turn that captured everyone’s attention, she bogged at the top of the wave and could not reenter leaving the wave peeling towards shore, holding with a most elusive championship crown.
Alyssa Cuizon caught a wave at the final horn that vaulted her into second place, with Melamed falling to the third spot. Moore earned herself another championship trophy for her shelves.
Wailua’s Malia Manuel fell victim to Cuizon’s surfing skills in the Explorer Girls division. Though she ended the heat with a flurry, Manuel could not overtake the strong opening that Cuizon displayed. Manuel, who is probably the most talented 13-year-old female surfer on Kaua‘i, is flying home with a second-place trophy.
This is the second year that Manuel settled for a second place standing at Trestles.
Because of the challenging conditions and the usual perfection Kaua‘i surfers are used to at home on the Garden Island, many of the young amateurs did not advance to the finals as they had hoped.
However the lesson in this instance is not to necessarily train in good conditions but rather seek the most trying conditions that are most challenging and leave the perfect waves and offshore winds and swell wrapping reefs to your free surfing sessions.
• Andy Melamed is a contributing writer to TGI’s surf page. Melamed currently works at KONG radio.
