DeSoto cruises to longboard title
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| "I'm just a little more focused and mature, I guess," Duane DeSoto said after capturing the Hawaiian Longboard Championship.
Bernie Baker • Special to The Advertiser |
Duane DeSoto's infant daughter witnessed the first surfing contest of her life yesterday while wearing an outfit that stated, "My daddy surfs better than your daddy."
Sure enough, Duane DeSoto surfed better than everybody — daddys or otherwise — to win the Hawaiian Longboard Championship at Makaha Beach. The contest was part of the two-day Quiksilver Makahiki Games.
"I'm just a little more focused and mature, I guess," said DeSoto, 26. "I just had my baby, so I'm a little more mellow now, and a little more patient."
That patience finally paid off after 10 years. DeSoto has been entering the Makahiki Games since he was 17. Although he learned to surf at Makaha, yesterday was his first professional victory there.
"I've known this wave forever," he said. "Today, the waves were perfect and conditions couldn't get any better, so I kind of knew where to do certain things."
Waves were in the 4- to 8-foot range, and DeSoto consistently caught the biggest and longest ones of the day.
Despite his knowledge of Makaha's tricky waves, DeSoto's victory was still somewhat unexpected. In addition to the birth of his daughter, his surfing time was cut last year because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
"I still have problems with my knee; I have to get surgery eventually," he said. "But I'm surfing all right, so I'm putting (surgery) off for now."
He did better than all right yesterday, though he miscalculated the timing of yesterday's final heat. Thinking the final was 30 minutes instead of 20, DeSoto caught only three waves in the heat.
However, two of his waves resulted in long rides highlighted by a various array of maneuvers. Those two rides were rewarded with scores of 9.5 and 9.3 for an insurmountable two-wave total of 18.8. Each surfer can catch up to 10 waves, but only the two best count toward the final score.
"When the horn sounded, I thought I blew it," DeSoto said. "I let some waves go by thinking I had time."
Kekoa Uemura placed second, followed by Ned Snow and Kai Sallas. All the competitors had to ride surfboards at least nine feet long.
The Makahiki Games will continue today at Makaha with canoe-surfing and tandem-surfing competition.
Final results
1, Duane DeSoto, $1,500. 2, Kekoa Uemura, $750. 3, Ned Snow, $350. 4, Kai Sallas, $250. 5 (tie), Rusty Keaulana and Bonga Perkins, $200. 7 (tie), Kanoa Dahlin and Joey Valentin, $100.
Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.
