The first jewel in the Triple Crown of Surfing was more like a moonstone. Cloudy weather and windblown surf took the luster out of the $70,000 gem and made for some semi-precious surfing. Still, the surfers made the moody conditions look good.
The event opened right on schedule in excellent three- to six-foot surf on Nov. 12th. Tony Ray got off to a good start, winning his heat, but Elijah Young and Dayton Segundo were among those with bad starts and were quickly eliminated.
November 13th, competition continued in the men's and women's events. Andy Irons posted the second highest score of the day and Pauline Menczer bounced off the reef in the women's division.
The juniors took over on Nov. 17th. "The waves weren't that good, but it's a contest and you have to handle whatever they throw at you," said Fred Patacchia Jr. Fred ended up in the semifinals with Bruce Irons, Hagan Kelly, and Trent Munroe. In the other semi was Nathan Hedge, Damien Hobgood, Mikala Jones and Adam Virs. They all had to wait another day as contest director Bernie Baker chose to postpone the OP Junior and hold the women's event.
Megan Abubo showed off her home-break knowledge and Rochelle and Cathy Beuford surfed well, too. Former world champ Pam Burrige was competing in Hawai'i for the first time since 1993, but the standout surfer of the day was 4' 10" Maria Tita Tavares, 23, from Brazil. She said through a translator, "I could hear everybody on the beach, all my girlfriends. I had to pinch myself. I couldn't believe it. I was actually surfing in Hawai'i."
The following day, in pouring rain with slight onshores, the Op Juniors took to the water again. Making the finals were Hawai'i's Fred Patacchia Jr., Australia's Trent Munro and Nathan Hedge, and Florida's Damien Hobgood. They didn't care that it was raining, especially Nathan Hedge, who posted the highest scores of the entire contest to win a $2,500 scholarship. Fred took third behind Hedge and Munro. "I was going straight up and trying to throw as much spray as possible, but they were surfing really, really good," he said. Fred ended up beating out Damien, while Hedge joined past OP Pro champions Kelly Slater ('89), Danny Melhado ('90), Rob Machado ('91), Tim Buehler ('92), Chris Stroher ('93), Kalani Robb ('94), Tim Curran ('95), and Dan Malloy ('96).
The next day of competition, Nov. 21, Maria Tita stole the women's $3,000 first prize by ripping up the difficult three- to five-foot surf and surviving the strong rip. Megan Abubo had second until Layne Beachley made it back out to the line-up and scored a 6.15 to bump Abubo into third. Lynette Mackenzie took fourth with three short waves that pretty much landed on her head. For Maria, it was a miracle. Her sponsors had taken a big risk sending her and since $1,000 was taken from her backpack earlier in the week, she really needed the prize money.
On the second to last possible day, Nov. 22, the crowd hoped for Kalani Robb or Ross Williams to win the men's event, as both were carving hard in the day's early heats. Kelly Slater went down to Occy and Marty Thomas in the round of 32, but then Marty lost in the quarters. Later in the semis, Occy, Gerlach, Rommelse, and Andy Irons all lost.
It was down to the finals, and finally the sun was out. The crowd watched as Taylor Knox, Kalani Robb, Ross Williams and Australian Tony Ray paddled out into grumpy, crumbly six- foot waves. Even though you'd think Ross or Kalani would have dominated the line-up, Tony owned it. Absolutely nothing good came to Ross, and he ended up in fouth. Taylor caught a couple of good waves, but fell on a couple, leaving him in third. Kalani was shredding and banking turns, but it was Tony Ray who ruled the 35-minute heat. He just paddled outside of everybody and waves came right to him. But it was no fluke, Ray had won all his heats in the contest, all the way from the trials. For him, the first jewel of the Triple Crown was no moonstone, it was as shiny as a diamond. And like a diamond, his victory lasts forever.
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