Uemura makes off with crown

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

After floating on the waves, Kekoa Uemura was floating on air after winning the Aston Hotels Surf Classic yesterday at the Ala Moana Bowl.

Knowledge of Ala Moana's waves helped lead Kekoa Uemura to victory in the Aston Hotels Surf Classic. Paul Teruya photo

Indeed, Uemura is quickly turning the Hawaiian Longboard Federation's Steinlager Series into his dream season. He has won two of the three events so far, and placed third in the other. The six-event series, which is restricted to surfers riding longboards (9 feet or longer), features most of Hawai'i's top competitors.

Uemura, who is in his first year as a professional, can already be considered one of Hawai'i's elite.

"I've watched a lot of these guys surf for a long time and I always wanted to be able to surf like them," said Uemura, who is the son of legendary surfer China Uemura.

Yesterday, he surfed better than all of them.

From his first heat of the day, Uemura was clearly the surfer to beat. In that heat, he registered scores of 9.0, 9.0 and 8.0 for his top three waves.

"It felt like everything was going good right from the start," he said. "From then on, I just kept pushing."

To be sure, Uemura consistently completed difficult maneuvers on the 1- to 3-foot waves. It helped that he grew up surfing at Ala Moana.

"Over the years, you get to know the spot," he said. "You can kind of see which waves are going to break good and which ones aren't."

One of his most impressive moves came in the four-man final. On his third ride of the heat, Uemura "floated" his board on top of a fast-breaking 3-foot wave, and landed the subsequent drop to the bottom of the wave.

"I saw a nice bowling section in front of me, so I decided to try and float the whole thing," he said. "Luckily, I made it. I thought I was going to fall because I was losing my balance on the drop. But I made it, and I just went 'whoa' and kept going."

The resulting score of 8.4 put Uemura in the lead for good. His top three waves scored 21.4 points, which was enough to hold off a late charge by Kapono Nahina.

Nahina caught some of the biggest waves of the final, but ultimately finished two points behind Uemura.

Former world champion Rusty Keaulana was a close third, and Mikey Gordon finished fourth.

"Kekoa got that one good set and he took it from there," said Nahina. "I knew I needed the bigger waves, so I just tried to wait. I got a couple of good ones, so I can't complain. I'm happy with second place."

Keaulana's performance was also significant since he is still recovering from a back injury that kept him away from competition for nearly a year. At 35, he was 14 years older than the next-oldest finalist, Nahina.

"I remember all these guys when they were little menehunes," said Keaulana, who also became a father six weeks ago with the birth of his son, Keliiokekai. "But it was Kekoa's day. I told him that before the final. He was surfing really good."

The event will continue today at Ala Moana with finals in the amateur divisions. The next event in the series is scheduled for July 28-29 at Maui.

Many of Hawai'i's top longboard surfers will compete in a contest in Brazil, July 25-29, and then the Oxbow World Championship at South Africa, Aug. 9-18.

Aston Hotels Surf Classic

Steinlager Pro Division

1, Kekoa Uemura. 2, Kapono Nahina. 3, Rusty Keaulana. 4, Mikey Gordon. 5 (tie), Joey Valentin and Tommy Chun-Ming. 7 (tie), Kai Sallas and Kanoa Dahlin. 9 (tie), Keola Rapoza, Ezra Rodrigues, Kanai Sharsh and Danny Kalahiki. 13 (tie), Gary Montira, Daniel Uchimura, Alika Kruger and Jim Teal.