LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i surfers have advanced in competition both on the Mainland and European shores this week.
Nage Melamed advanced to the final at the ASP Swatch Girls Pro Junior, a six-star, under-21 competition in Les Bourdaines, France that also featured Kaua‘i’s Leila Hurst and Alana Blanchard.
Melamed took first in her semifinal heat with a 13.40 score to advance. Blanchard was caught in the wrong group, as her 10.55 tally would have been good enough to advance in heat No. 1, but placed her fourth in heat No. 2 giving her an equal-fifth finish.
Hurst made it through to the quarterfinals, but was ousted by two fellow Hawaiians in Blanchard and O‘ahu’s Coco Ho. Ho will be joining Melamed in the finals, along with California standout Courtney Conlogue and Australia’s Laura Enever.
Conditions were small and clean with a light cross-shore sea breeze throughout Friday afternoon’s action as the low tide offered waves in the two- to three-foot range.
Ho blasted her way to the final with a big-time performance in her semifinal, opening with a 7.00 out of 10, then claiming a near-perfect 9.60 — the highest single score and two-wave total of the event to this point.
“The conditions and the tide just worked out so well for me in that heat and I got one of the best waves I’ve had since coming here,” Ho said in an ASP press release. “It has felt good to do the junior here to just find my feet again and happy to be in the final with a few friends so now we will wait until the weekend and it looks like the conditions should be good.”
Scoring an early 8.5 in her semifinal heat, Melamed continued to search for her backup score, which eventually came in the second half of the heat, allowing her to compete in her first ASP Pro Junior final overseas.
“I feel really good because it is my first pro junior final out of my country so I am really excited,” she told ASP. “My semi was so difficult with Laura Enever and the two French girls, Justine Dupont and Pauline Ado, because they are all such really good surfers so I am very fortunate to make it to the final. It was fun even though the wind picked up and I had fun out there.”
An in-form Conlogue continued her excellent campaign, grabbing her spot in the final with a 12.50 semifinal score.
Enever got through with a 10.50, though she didn’t know what she needed to advance, being out of earshot of the announcers.
“I didn’t know what position I was in but I knew I only had one good wave so I tried to catch whatever I could,” she said.
For more information and tournament results for this and upcoming ASP events, visit www.aspeurope.com.
VQS at Newport Beach
into quarterfinals
Also taking place now is the Volcom VQS Tour’s Crustaceous Oaks Summer Camp Championships at Newport Beach, Calif.
Kaua‘i’s Dylan Goodale, Tyler Newton and Chris Foster have all advanced into the quarterfinals from a field of 64 to start the event. Goodale and Foster will be in the same four-man heat trying to reach the semis, while Newton will have another Hawai‘i surfer, Albee Layer, competing with him.
In the Junior event, Nathan and Roy Carvalho have advanced into the quarterfinals, though they will be paddling out with one another in Heat No. 2., trying to reach the semfinal heats.
Jesse Guglielmana, Chatson Barrett and Gavin Klein had all advanced to the second round of competition before missing out on the quarters.
Kiana Flores made it into the Girls division quarterfinals before coming up short in her heat.
The Groms competition sees Koa Smith in the quarterfinals, after putting up the highest second-round total of 13.27. Luke Hitchcock was unable to join him in the quarters after a first-round second-place finish.
Follow the action at www.volcom.com/flash/new_futures/0410_vqslive/
