Two champions were crowned today at the cobblestone pointbreak of Trestles. Newport Beach’s Andrew Doheny was crowned as the new Oakley Pro Junior Champion, beating out Nat Young, Dylan Goodale and Tyler Newton. Hurley’s Evan Geiselman narrowly missed getting into the final; he needed a 7.49 and the judges gave him a 7.48, just .01 margin. As for the 6.0 Lowers Pro, after beating out a number of WCT surfers, St. Augustine’s Gabe Kling was crowned champion.
Looking at the draw for the Rd of 16, there were countless good matchups that just could not be missed. Many heats pinned the upcoming youth against veteran CT sufers. Chris Davidson “Davo” against Seabastian Zeitz. I had a quick chat with SeaBass right before his heat, and he was just soo stoked and pumped to go out and surf against Davo. He even made sure to get some of the “lucky contest wax.” Unfortunately for Seabass, throwing out the fins and rail to rail surfing was just not enough against a focused and hungry Davo.
The road to the finals for both finalists was no easy task. With 30 out of 44 WCT surfers in the contest, it was more like a CT event. After a missing a few years, Davo is back on tour this year and in form and focused.
Almost stealing the show at the end was Andy Irons. Throughout the contest, he surfed consistently and solidly. It was not until this semi-final heat against Gabe Kling did Andy lose his mojo. In the first few minutes of the heat, AI’s board just buckled underneath him and broke. That just killed his rhythm and he never got back into the heat. It was his favorite board, and the board he used to come back on the tour and achieve his dream. AI is definitely happy with his result and everyone on the beach was cheering him on wanting him to win. It will take a few more events before he truly gets back to the level of competition.
At the end of the day, it was all about Gabe Kling. He built momentum throughout the contest and was just focused on his surfing and being reserved. He also had such a friendly demeanor to him. He had to surf against, Jordy Smith, AI, and a slew of other well name surfers. Gabe is such a deserving winner who couldn’t be more delighted to win by just narrowly missing out on this year’s CT injury wild card. Gabe unfortunately had to miss the majority of 2009 Dream Tour due to injury.
Gabe and Davo having a quick chat before the awards ceremony
Australia’s Josh Kerr also put up a good show here at Lowers, pulling out airs and solid surfing. Looks like his ankle is healed and we’ll see Josh next at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach in July.
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