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Sunshine. Spring Break. Bikini weather. Surf-crazed
beachgoers.
That’s what Surf Fest 2010 organizer Mitch Varnes
was hoping for when he moved the Sebastian Inlet Pro from January to March,
turning the former World Qualifying Series stand-alone event into a week-long
collection of ASP Pro Juniors, amateur comps, collegiate championships, and
masters contests.
And although it remains unseasonably cool in
Florida, the sun was out in full force for all but two days of Surf Fest 2010
— Thursday, March 11th and Friday, March 12th, when the ASP Grade-3M Ron
Jon Sebastian Inlet Pro presented by Skullcandy and the ASP Grade-2W Skullcandy
Girls Pro Junior got underway. For those two days, the rain fell. The wind
blew. The clouds never once parted.
But one critical character did show up: waves. Lucky
they did, too, as the hottest surfers from up and down the East Coast, the
Caribbean, California, and even Hawaii headed East en masse to tame the
Sebastian Inlet beast.
Thursday saw the pool of 80 male surfers entered in
the Ron Jon Sebastian Inlet Pro whittled down to 32, before a tornado warning
late in the day forced everyone to flee the beach. But a hard SSE wind blew up
a few short-period waist- to chest-high peaks that raced up the beach unpredictably,
providing just enough speed for the 20-and-unders to blow tail and lay into a
few meaty carves.
Day One Right Coast standouts included Dylan
Kowalski, Evan Geiselman, Fisher Heverly, Evan Barton, Evan Thompson, Nick
Rupp, Balaram Stack, and Michael Dunphy, but the biggest Eastside story came
when Gulf Coast prodigy Tayler Brothers — sporting new Rip Curl stickers
on his Orion freshie — battled back from last place via two smooth
backhand smacks to nail a 6.87 and win his Round of 64 heat against Brent
Reilly, Colin Moran, and Scott Weinhardt. International superstar Kolohe Andino
also netted the highest single-wave score and heat score of Day One, with a
9.00 and a 16.83, respectively.
When the Round of 32 picked back up on Friday, the
surf was cleaner and smaller, back in the knee to waist-high range and with
less wind on it, but the rain kept on falling, turning the parking lot into a
muddy mess and sending surfers back and forth from their heated cars in between
heats to fight off the effects of 60-degree water and 55-degree air temps. Out
of nine East Coasters left in the Round of 32, six advanced, with Geiselman
winning his heat, Heverly squeaking through behind Hawaii’s Alex Smith, and the
duos of Thompson and Brothers and Rupp and Dunphy tag-teaming their
international competition to make the quarterfinals. “I was surfing like shit
out there,” Dunphy said in typically self-deprecating fashion after winning his
heat with a 5.77 and a 5. “I couldn’t find any speed, but at least Rupp and I got
through.”
In the quarterfinals, longtime friends Geiselman and
Brothers provided a Right Coast stumbling block to Smith and California’s Andrew Doheny, but also ensured that they would again meet in the semis. The
remaining East Coasters in the quarterfinals all fell, with Heverly and
Thompson going down in Quarter #2, Rupp finishing 4th in a stacked heat with
Andino, eventual finalist Chase Wilson, and Hawaiian champion Keanu Asing, and
Dunphy barely losing to Conner Coffin and Luke Davis.
The Ron Jon Sebastian Inlet Pro semifinals and
finals were timed to coincide with a low tide, allowing Brothers and Geiselman
to really perform in Semifinal #1. Unfortunately, Brothers couldn’t dig his way
out of 4th-place, but also logged his best result on the ASP Pro Junior series
and watched best bud Geiselman surf a solid final against Asing, Garcia, and
Wilson. Evan G. started slow, but after Garcia netted an interference and
Wilson stumbled, Geiselman brought the pain against his Hawaiian counterpart
with two quick rights to walk away with the $3000 1st-place prize and a
valuable 2000 points towards qualification for the 2010 ASP World Junior Tour.
“The final started off slow for me, and I hadn’t
caught a wave after the first five minutes,” Geiselman told the ASP. “Then I
caught two quick waves and had to play the dirty work and sit on 2nd in the
last five minutes.” Dirty work or not, Geiselman cleaned up at Surf Fest 2010,
winning the prestigious Boys Under 18 division of the Hurley Surfing America Prime
event earlier in the week and ringing in his maiden ASP Pro Junior victory less
than two hours from home. “I’m really stoked and don’t
even know what to say,” Geiselman said. “To win this contest so close to home
with so many great pro junior surfers from up and down the East Coast,
California, and Hawaii… it means a lot.”
On the Skullcandy Girls Pro Junior side of the draw,
a field of only 24 surfers belied the deep pool of talent on offer, with
Hawaiians, Californians, and Puerto Ricans joining the local and East Coast
wahine talent. New Smyrna Beach, FL, ripper Amy Nicholl, who had already tasted
Surf Fest 2010 victory at the Collegiate Surfing Association’s East Coast
Championships earlier in the week, dominated her opening heat, logging a 7.17
and a 6.17 early on to throttle her less experienced heatmates and cruise to
the quarterfinals. Puerto Rico’s Liza Caban also placed 2nd in her opening
round heat, before losing in the quarterfinals to Californian hotshot Lakey
Peterson and New York contest whiz Quincy Davis.
But Davis and Sebastian Inlet local Jasset Umbel had
too much to handle in their semifinal heat against Hawaiian heavy Alessa Quizon
and Peterson. And Nicholl also stumbled against highly touted ASP Pro Junior
surfers Malia Manuel and Leila Hurst, setting up a girls’ final with three
Islanders and one Californian. Manuel, who made history last year as the
youngest ASP WQS champion by winning the U.S. Open at the ripe old age of 14,
adapted well to Florida’s cold water and air and dominated the heat. “The final
really slowed down with the high tide,” Manuel said. “But I was lucky to find a
couple of waves. I haven’t competed in about a month, so this is a great way to
start off the New Year.”
Ditto for Geiselman, the East Coast’s next golden
child, who now holds an early-season ASP North America ratings lead after
logging the best Pro Junior result of his life: “It’s a great start to my year,
since it’s my goal to qualify for the World Junior Tour. This win gives me some
momentum going into the next event.”
And as Evan demonstrated by slaying Hawaiians,
Californians, and East Coasters alike, it gives us Rightside surf fans one more
thing to cheer about.
For full results and ASP Pro Junior ratings,
visit www.aspworldtour.com or www.aspnorthamerica.org
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