HONOLULU — Newly crowned women’s world longboarding champion Joy Monahan, daughter of Mark and Liane Magelsson of Hanama‘ulu, capped off the summer of her life by winning the Roxy Jam Honolulu yesterday. Monahan, 22, surfed to a convincing win over
HONOLULU — Newly crowned women’s world longboarding champion Joy Monahan, daughter of Mark and Liane Magelsson of Hanama‘ulu, capped off the summer of her life by winning the Roxy Jam Honolulu yesterday.
Monahan, 22, surfed to a convincing win over a stellar local lineup in the final and earned $2,000 for her result. The Roxy Jam Honolulu is a three-star Association of Surfing Professionals contest, now in its second year.
Runner-up for the second consecutive year was 15-year-old Roxy team-rider Kelia Moniz of Honolulu. While Moniz demonstrated the most impressive nose-riding of the event — clocking up weightless “cheetah fives” and “hang tens,” her wave selection left her short on the critical points in the final. Third place went to 20-year-old Geodee Clark and 23-year-old Malia Kaleopa‘a took fourth. The final scoreline, based upon each surfer’s top two scoring rides, had Monahan on 15.75 points (8.75, 7.0), Moniz on 13.29 (6.17, 7.12), Clark on 11.17 (6.12, 5.05), and Kaleopa‘a on 5.5 points (2.75, 2.75).
Another big winner yesterday was Waikiki local Crystal Dzigas who pocketed the $3,000 style award, earning the nod from the judges for demonstrating the most superb overall longboarding presentation of the meet, despite being narrowly eliminated in the semi-finals by Clark and Monahan.
Surf for yesterday’s final four rounds of competition was only small at 1- to 2-feet, but of typical Waikiki peeling perfection. A total of 18 waves were ridden during the 30-minute final, only three of them by Monahan, but she nailed the two largest waves of the final that allowed extra wave-face for maneuvers and length of ride.
“It has been an amazing summer, one of my favorites for sure,” said Monahan, who heads back to college in Utah next week. “I was more nervous for this contest than I was for (the world title), just because I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. But once I just told myself that I proved everything in France and this is for fun, I was able to relax.”
The Roxy Jam Honolulu was part of the 2008 Duke’s OceanFest, a celebration of surfing and water sports held in honor of surfer Duke Kahanamoku.
