Stu Kennedy and Alain Riou emerge triumphant in opening round of Reef Hawaiian Pro
Australia’s Stu Kennedy and French Polynesia’s Alain Riou made the Round 2 (Round of 96) cut at the Reef Hawaiian Pro, stop No.1 on the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, after clinching victory in their respective Round 1 (Round of 128) heats that went down
at Alii Beach in Oahu, Hawaii, on Thursday, November 15.
Hawaii’s Dege O’Connell finished below Kennedy in second place during the third heat to make his way into the next round as well, whereas Hawaii’s Gregg Nakamura and South Africa’s Dale Staples were forced to exit the event field after finishing in third
and fourth place respectively.
The fourth heat saw Hawaii’s Tanner Hendrickson accompany Riou into the second round after securing runner-up position. Australia’s Nic Muscroft and Hawaii’s Kaimana Jaquias rounded out the bottom-two positions, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
128 extremely skilled surfers from 15 countries were in contention for the $250,000 prize purse that was on offer at the first Vans Triple Crown of Surfing event of the year, thus promising to deliver a heavy dose of thrilling action throughout the week.
Pitted against three intimidating competitors, Kennedy had his work cut out for him. However, the Australian surfer managed to hold his own and ended up posting a 6.50 and 5.60 on the score-board, thus getting to a winning heat-total of 12.10 points.
O’Connell collected a couple of scores in the four-point range to register a heat-total of 8.80 points, which proved adequate to see him through into the second round.
Nakamura and Staples finished with a heat-total of 4.54 and 4.27 points respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The fourth heat saw Riou clinch the win, though just barely, to advance into the next round.
The French Polynesian surfer received a strong challenge from the local talent Hendrickson during the four-man battle. However, he eventually managed to finish on top with a heat-total of 12.60 points against his rival’s two-wave total of 11.93.
Muscroft scored a 7.83 and 3.10 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 10.93 points, while Jaquias even below him with a heat-total of 10.60 points, which comprised of a 5.83 and 4.77-point ride.
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