The Women’s Hurley Pro Sunset Beach, the second event on the Championship Tour (CT), is underway, with a marathon of surfing done on Thursday to reach the semi-finals stage.
The Hawaiians dominated the day in the over-head plus conditions, sealing up three of the semi-final spots.
The first semi will be all Hawaiian, more specifically all Kauaian, as Malia Manuel takes on Gabriela Bryan, while the second will see 16-year-old Bettylou Sakura Johnson of O'ahu up against Costa Rican Brisa Hennesy.
The highest scorer of the finalists so far is Bryan, with a 15.27 in her quarter-final win over fellow Hawaiian Luana Silva. Both girls scored 8-point rides in what was a tight heat, but Bryan performed her bottom turns to perfection to set up each manoeuvre, narrowly edging out Silva.
Interestingly, she had to take the route of the elimination round, but won convincingly, and has looked dominant ever since.
However, Manuel, Sakura Johnson, and Hennessy have all shown consistency in the often difficult to read Sunset line-up, and it could be anyone’s event.
CT veteran, Manuel, said it had been a huge day and one of the biggest days in women’s competitive surfing.
“This is exactly what I wanted, a Semi-final in Hawaii to start the season,” she said.
The upset of the day occurred in the round of 16, when Australian Molly Picklum defeated five-time and current world champion Carissa Moore of Hawaii, while the highest heat score of the day went to American Courtney Conlogue, a 16.27 for her two best waves in the opening round.
The second highest score was a 15.75 by Johanne Defay of France when she took down Conlogue in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, the men’s competition has reached the quarter-finals stage with some of the big names having been eliminated, including Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Italo Ferreira, and Felipe Toledo.
In the first quarter-final, Caio Ibelli, the only Brazilian to make the quarters, will take on Hawaiian Zek Lau. Ibelli had to go through the elimination round after only scoring 7.64 in the opening round, but has achieved solid scores since then, while Lau has scored consistently throughout the event.
Next up, is an all Hawaiian quarter-final, Barron Mamiya going head to head with Pipeline runner up Seth Moniz, who, like Ibelli, had to take the hard road through the elimination round. Mamiya has been more consistent so far, with scores ranging from 11.40 to 14.40, whereas Moniz has had two scores under 10.
Heat 3 will see Australian Ethan Ewing come up against American Jake Marshall. In the round of 16, Ewing pulled a score of 18.24, the highest of the event so far, to take down Felipe Toledo, who finished runner up to Gabriel Medina in the 2021 CT finals.
Marshall, although having not scored as consistently high as Ewing throughout the contest, did eliminate two-time world champ John John Florence in the round of 32.
The last quarter-final is between two surfers who have been as equally comfortable in the Sunset line-up as Ewing. Both Australia’s Jack Robinson and Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi have performed superbly, with great wave selection and variety on the wave face. Robinson has the second-highest score of the event so far, with 17.67 in the round of 32.
Waves permitting, the finals are set to be decided on Friday Hawaiian time, and Saturday morning Australian time.
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