Local woman Megan Abubo was crowned Reef Hawaiian Pro champ at Haleiwa earlier today, where the big story of the day though was the local girl’s win in Haleiwa, with her inspired performance in front of all her family and friends.
For South African supporters of women’s surfing the results were not as pleasant, with news that both local contenders, Nikita Robb and Roseanne Hodge failed to make it through a tough heat against top competitors Chelsea Hedges (AUS) and Courtney Conlogue (USA).
Robb had the worst of difficult conditions, managing only to catch a single wave, and her overall score of 1.27 was never going to be enough, while Hodge faired better to post a 5.96 average, but nowhere near enough to challenge Conlogue’s 11.00 and Hedge’s 11.16.
But come the final, local girl Abubo looked comfortable, relaxed and oh-so-confidant. "I have an advantage here for sure," she said with a sly smile. "I don’t want to give away my strategy but I definitely have a game plan I’ve been sticking to."
And after posting the contest first perfect 10, which she was able to back up with a 9.3, setting the pace for the highest heat total of the entire event with a 19.30, there was no question her strategy was working. And she needed every ounce of that knowledge to deal with the conditions.
The waves at Haleiwa were little temptresses today. Alluring but devastatingly difficult, but in the end Megan’s local knowledge was too much to handle. She consistently picked off the best waves with the smoothest faces.
The final, which featured Leilani Gryde, Karina Pertroni, Megan Abubo and Layne Beachley started slow. Abubo found herself playing catch up behind Beachley for most of the heat until she picked off one of those Haleiwa gems that take true local knowledge to find. She then tore an 8.3 out of it and never looked back.
Under a flurry of flower petals, Megan hoisted her new hardware high, and thanked the entire community of Haleiwa.
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
Loading...
