Billy Kemper and Hank Gaskell off to a great start at the Reef Hawaiian Pro
Hawaii’s Billy Kemper and Hawaii’s Hank Gaskell earned their place in the second round (Round if 96) at the Reef Hawaiian Pro, first of three events on the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, after emerging triumphant in their respective Round 1 (Round of 128)
heats that went down at the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii on Thursday, November 15.
America’s Cory Lopez also made it into the next round after finishing below Kemper in second place during the fifth heat, whereas Hawaii’s Ian Gentil and Australia’s Blake Thornton got eliminated from the competition following their third and fourth finish
respectively.
The sixth heat saw Australia’s Lincoln Taylor advance to Round 2 alongside Gaskell after securing second position. Hawaii’s Marcus Hickman and Kai Barger finished outside the top-two, thus getting ejected from the contention for the event title.
Though the crowd in attendance at Alii Beach were made to wait for the action, they did get compensated for it in the form of a series of thrilling battle.
This was to be expected since 128 surfers from 15 countries were taking each other on in four-man battles for the top honours and a big slice of the $250,000 prize purse.,
The fifth heat saw Kemper get the better of Lopez, Gentil and Thornton in not the best of surfing conditions that were prevailing at the North Shore.
The Hawaiian surfer earned a 6.03 off his first business-wave and later added an additional 5.17 points to his account, thus getting to a heat-total of 11.20 points, which held up until the end to see him through to victory.
Lopez finished just below after registering a heat-total of 10.33 points, which comprised of a 6.83 and 3.50-point ride. The score and consequent position was good enough to get him a place in the next round.
Gentil finished third with a heat-total of 8.90 points, while Thornton finished at the bottom with a two-wave total of 6.73 points.
The next heat turned out to be pretty much a one-sided affair, with Gaskell hardly giving his competitors any chance to exert pressure on him.
The Hawaiian surfer made full use of his local knowledge of the waves to collect a couple of scores in the seven-point range, thus eventually concluding the heat with a decisive score of 14.67 points.
Taylor made the Round 2 cut as well after securing a second-place finish through a two-wave total of 10.27 points, which included a 5.67 and 4.60-point ride.
Hickman and Barger were unable to go through into the next round after finishing with a heat-total of 7.50 and 5.73 points respectively.
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