Jesse Merle-Jones and Tyler Newton advance to Round 2 of Reef Hawaiian Pro
Hawaii’s Jesse Merle-Jones kicked off the first stop of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, the Reef Hawaiian Pro, with a win in the Round of 128 (Round 1) that went down at the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii on Monday, November 21.
Despite the victory not being a convincing one, it was still enough to carry Jones off into the next round, the Round of 96. Following him into the next round was Tyler Newton, who extended his life in the competition by finishing in second place.
Spain’s Gony Zubizarreta and Brazil’s Jeronimo Vargas rounded out the third and fourth position respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
After a delay of nine days, Reef Hawaiian Pro was finally able to get under-way. With head-high waves on offer at the primary event site, the first heat of the competition kicked off, pitting four extremely skilled surfers against each other in a battle.
The 32-year-old Jones wasted no time in making a charge and collected a wave in the opening minutes of the heat to post a 4.50 on the score-board. He immediately followed it up with a 6.00-point wave to move to a heat-total of 10.50 points. The score hardly
looked like a challenging one, but remained unbeatable throughout the entirety of the contest and consequently carrying him to victory.
Newton secured the runner-up place after collecting a 4.00 off his first business-wave during the early stages of the four-man battle. After a lengthy hunt, he was able to add an additional 5.33 points to his account, taking his heat-total to 9.33 points.
The second-place finish was enough to confirm his place in the next round.
Zubizarreta looked extremely uncomfortable since the very first minute and struggled to adjust to the conditions. He had little luck with catching waves and failed to squeeze anything significant off the ones that he eventually did manage to lock. His misery
was brought to an end with the buzzer sounding after 25 minutes. With a heat-total of 4.10 points, the Spanish surfer finished in third place and hence got ejected from the competition.
Vargas did not have luck on his side either and after getting off to a weak start, continued to desperately search for a good wave. His desperation eventually got him an interference call in the final minutes of the heat. As the battle concluded, the Brazilian
had only managed to get to a heat-total of 2.53 points, finishing in fourth place and getting eliminated from the competition as a result.
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