G-Shock Hawaiian Pro kicks off Triple Crown of Surfing

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Not everybody gets to surf on the opening day of surf contests.

Joel Centeio cuts through a wave during the opening round of the G-Shock Hawaiian Pro at Ali'i Beach. Bernie Baker • Special to The Advertiser

Such was the case yesterday as the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing got underway with the opening rounds of the G-Shock Hawaiian Pro for men and the Roxy Pro for women.

Waves at Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach ranged from 4 to 6 feet with clean shapes in the morning, to 3 to 4 feet and wind-blown in the afternoon.

"If you want to be a pro surfer, you have to be ready for anything," said Kaua'i's Roy Powers. "It's the kind of day you have to scratch your way through and hope you get to surf for another day."

Powers did just that, advancing through two heats — one in the morning, and then another in the late afternoon.

"It means everything," he said. "You do good in a North Shore contest, you can pretty much do good anywhere."

Because the top-ranked surfers receive byes into the third round, the opening day is normally reserved for up-and-coming competitors, or veteran surfers who are no longer on the world tour.

"The only thing I can compare it to is maybe tennis and Wimbledon," said Pancho Sullivan of O'ahu's North Shore. "Everybody sees the main guys on TV from the quarterfinals and on, but what you don't see is all the hundreds of guys who play in the earlier rounds."

Sullivan was one of several standout performers from Hawai'i yesterday. Others included Jamie O'Brien, Kaipo Jaquias, Joel Centeio and Isaac Kaneshiro.

Australian Mick Fanning recorded the day's highest scores: 8.17, 7.83 and 6.27 for a three-wave total of 22.27.

"It's not the best conditions, but it's contestable, so you do what you can with it," he said. "Obviously, I would have liked to be seeded higher, but I'm just glad to make it through the first day."

Six-time former world champion Kelly Slater failed to show for his first-round heat because he has not yet arrived in Hawai'i. Australian Shannon Pollard replaced Slater and won his first-round heat.

The most impressive performance of the day was turned in by Wai'anae's Melanie Bartels in the women's Roxy Pro.

Bartels, 19, had a three-wave total of 25.94, which was easily enough to win her first-round heat. She had waves that scored 8.96, 8.70 and 8.28.

"It's hard to choose which wave will have a wall to it," she said. "Somehow, I found a couple good ones. I was just trying to do as many maneuvers as I could before (the wave) closed out."

Hawai'i surfers Sena Seramur and Hiromi Hasegawa also advanced to the second round.

The contests will resume when conditions permit. For daily status of the events, call 596-7873.