Nathan Yeoman shows off his mettle in the deadly waves of Banzai Pipeline
America’s Nathan Yeomans had put on a remarkable performance while dealing with a field comprising of deadly Hawaiian talent at the intimidating Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, during Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 5-Star Volcom Pipe Pro last
week. Despite a real lacklustre performance during the Final, the 30-year-old Californian standout’s survival in the competition until the end was praiseworthy indeed.
Talking to aspworldtour.com recently, Yeomans described the experience of surfing at Banzai Pipeline exciting and felt honour to make it into the Final.
During the early rounds of the competition, the American surfer had been simply phenomenal as he took down the local as well as foreign talent to gradually make his way forward. Even the likes of Hawaiian sensation Bruce Irons was unable to wound Yeomans
in the Final. Even a nasty wipe-out resulting from a deadly Pipeline reef a day prior to the final day of the event was unable to keep the Californian at bay and came at Irons hard to advance through into the Final.
“I had a bad wipe-out the day before, on the big day,” Yeomans said. “I got sucked over the falls and got suplexed on the reef on the middle of my back. I was really lucky I didn’t hit 12 inches higher up on my body. That night I was almost certain I wasn’t
going to be able to surf the next day. I woke up and felt a bit better. I saw how good the waves were and said, s***w it, I’m out there. The semi-final was a nail bitter. I actually didn’t know I made it until I got to the beach. That was probably the best
moment in competitive Surfing I’ve had.”
John John Florence, Jaime O’Brien and former ASP World Junior Champion Kai Barger showed absolutely no mercy to the sole foreigner in the Final’s line-up and made use of their local knowledge of the waves to position themselves for the best waves on offer
and attacking the best sections to reap huge dividends.
Yeomans admitted that he was utterly dominated by the local talent during the four-man Final of the competition and hardly knew how to counter-attack. However, he pointed out that the advantage of surfing at Banzai Pipeline had indeed played a huge role
in tipping the scales in the favour of his rivals.
While Yeomans had managed to hold his own despite an ugly wipe-out , expecting him to stand his ground in front of two surfers who evidently knew the waves and condition extremely well was a bit unfair. The American had already done exceptionally well to
trouble a number of local talents during the previous rounds of the competition, but taking on the likes of Florence and O’Brien in deadly Banzai Pipeline was definitely a wall too high for him to climb.
Surfing the Pipeline is something that surfers dream about while growing up. Even the 11-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater of America does not shy away from calling the spot his favour place to surf. The challenge offered by the reef indeed brings out
the best in a surfer and Yeomans did not get disappointed with the experience either.
The Californian sensation conceded that his excellent run in Hawaii had given him a lot of confidence and intended to make use of this confidence to make a solid impact in the latest ASP season. To see if a top-four finish in Volcom Pipe Pro has really given
him a mental boost, we will have to wait and see how he fares at the upcoming ASP Prime Hang Loose Pro that is scheduled to get underway this week in Brazil.
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