Perkins right at home in North Shore high surf

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Grin and Bear it.

Bonga Perkins wasn't afraid of the big waves during the Bear Hawaiian Pro Longboard Invitational at Hale'iwa's Ali'i Beach. He won the final heat with a score of 24.03. Bernie Baker • Special to The Advertiser

In waves of 6 to 10 feet (with 15-foot faces) at Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach, Perkins dominated a field featuring the world's best longboard surfers. Each competitor had to ride a board at least 9 feet long.

"It was no easy task," said Perkins, who resides in Hale'iwa. "But I live here, I surf here, I taught my kids how to surf here. Basically, I felt comfortable."

Longboards are bulkier and theoretically slower than regular surfboards, so big-wave contests are rarely held for longboard surfers. Many competitors would have preferred to keep it that way yesterday.

Some of them asked contest director Randy Rarick to postpone the event yesterday, and he contemplated doing just that. In contrast, most of the Hawai'i contingent wanted it to go forward.

"We deal with big waves all the time, and most of us have been out in waves bigger than this," Perkins said. "But you could look in some of the other guys' faces and see that they didn't want to be out there. That made me happy because I knew they were defeating themselves."

Not that Perkins needed the help.

Of the hundreds of waves rode over two days of competition, Perkins received the five highest scores.

His best came during yesterday's final — a perfect 10 for a daring barrel-ride through a 10-foot wave. It was the first wave he caught during the final heat, and left the other three finalists in his wake the rest of the way.

"When I took off on it, I saw it setting up real fast in front of me," he said. "I knew I had to either straighten out and get no points or pull in (to the barrel) and go for all the points."

Because of the pounding surf, Perkins was not aware of his score until the heat was over.

"I think that was a good thing," said Perkins, the 1996 world longboarding champion. "It kept me on my toes thinking I still needed big scores to win."

He caught several more big waves later in the heat, and finished with a score of 24.03 for his top three rides.

"You have to be aggressive to win on days like this," said Perkins, 28. "When you take off on waves of this size, there's no turning back."

He earned $7,500 for the victory. The contest was a "specialty" event, and only 32 of the top-ranked longboard surfers from around the world were invited to compete.

"When you take into consideration the size of the waves you have to surf to win this, it's as big as any event in the world," Perkins said.

He was joined in the final by two other veteran Hawai'i competitors — Lance Ho'okano and Rusty Keaulana. Fitting with Perkins' theory, Hawai'i surfers took five of the top six places.

"Anybody can surf in small waves," Ho'okano said. "But, come on, not too many guys will even go out to surf on days like this."

Ho'okano and Keaulana consistently took off on some of the day's biggest waves, but could never find the open-faced sections that Perkins did. Ultimately, Ho'okano wound up in third place, and Keaulana fourth.

"I had my moments when I was scared, but the adrenaline just takes over," Ho'okano said. "I wanted it big because I felt like I had a better chance. So I have no complaints. Bonga was just unbeatable today."

Second place went to South Africa's Jason Ribbink, one of the few international competitors who wanted to surf in the big waves. His three-wave total in the final was 19.3, including a 7.5.

"I came all this way to surf waves like this," Ribbink said. "Some people will say this wasn't true longboarding. But you know what? This is Hawai'i and you could say this was what longboarding in Hawai'i is all about."

Final results

1, Bonga Perkins (Hawai'i), $7,500. 2, Jason Ribbink (South Africa), $3,000. 3, Lance Ho'okano (Hawai'i), $2,000. 4, Rusty Keaulana (Hawai'i), $1,200. 5 (tie), Kanoa Dahlin (Hawai'i) and Kapono Nahina (Hawai'i), $750. 7 (tie), Joel Tudor (California) and Devon Howard (California), $500. 9 (tie), Phil Rajzman (Brazil), William Wallace (South Africa), Keegan Edwards (Hawai'i) and Darren Leddingham (California), $250. 13 (tie), Josh Baxter (California), Romain Maurin (France), Zack Howard (California) and Chris Vandervoort (Hawai'i), $200.

Longest nose ride: Devon Howard, $500

Most progressive maneuver: Phil Lajzman, $500.