Mitchell won the final contest of the 2003-04 Macy's E-Series at the Ala Moana Bowl yesterday. It was the first victory of his young professional career.

"I've been having a pretty bad year and all of a sudden I won this, so I'm kind of shocked," said Mitchell, 19.

The Macy's E-Series was created for exactly those kinds of moments. The goal of the series is to give Hawai'i's top young surfers more experience in professional events.

"We want to give them a confidence boost here in their own backyard so that they can then go out and tackle the competition around the world," said series director Bert Ishimaru.

Mitchell made the most of 1- to 2-foot waves, edging Pearl City's Jason Shibata, 12.67-12.34, in the final.

"Partly patience and partly luck," Mitchell said.

Midway through the final, he caught one of the best waves of the heat and proceeded to complete several carving maneuvers. The judges rewarded him with a score of 8.0 (out of 10).

"I was waiting for a while and this one wave came out of nowhere," he said. "I got it and did as much as I could on it and somehow got a good score."

Dustin Cuizon placed third and Kekoa Bacalso fourth. Bacalso received a score of 9.33 for his best wave in the final, but could not find a second scoring wave.

Raymond Reichle of O'ahu's North Shore was eliminated in the first round, but still scored enough points to win the overall 2003-04 Macy's E-Series championship.

This year's series consisted of five events.

Kekoa Uemura of Honolulu relied on his familiarity with the waves at Ala Moana to win the longboard division.

"I don't know about being an expert, but I feel pretty comfortable out here," said Uemura, 21.

He had a two-wave total of 13.66 to top runner-up Keegan Edwards' score of 11.10. Kai Sallas was third, and Kapono Nahina fourth.

Uemura also won the overall series title.

This was the second season of the Macy's E-Series, and Ishimaru said he plans to run another five-event series in 2004-05.