Maui teenager wins trip to surf at French event
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
Maui's Albee Layer now has something else to do this summer besides surfing.
He can study French.
Layer
Layer won the Quiksilver King of the Groms contest yesterday at the Ala Moana Bowl, and received a trip to surf in an international event in France in September.
"It's the biggest thing I've ever won," said Layer, who will be 14 on Thursday. "I'm going (to France), for sure."
The one-day contest was for surfers ages 15 and younger. Around 50 boys from around the state competed, and each surfer got to surf in at least two heats.
Layer, who will be a ninth- grader at Thompson Academy, will represent Hawai'i at the international contest in France. Other regional champions from around the world will compete in the France event.
"I'm excited about it," said Layer, who is from Ha'iku, Maui.
Layer and his father, Al, have been on O'ahu since Thursday. He also competed in the state amateur championship contest over the weekend.
"We go through a lot of expenses for him to travel for all these contests," Al Layer said. "But something like this makes it all worthwhile. It's just too bad only one kid could win."
Kaua'i's Koa Smith, who is only 10, upset several older competitors to finish in second place.
"I beat bigger guys before, so I went out there to do the same thing," Smith said. "But I never thought I had a chance to get second, so I'm really happy with it."
After two rounds of surfing, Layer and Smith were tied. Layer won the tie-breaker heat with a 7.33 ride.
"I knew it was an OK wave, but I knew Koa could get a good one, too," Layer said. "I was nervous the whole way."
In a unique format, each surfer was judged on just one wave per heat. Waves were in the 2- to 4-foot range, and several of the surfers posted high scores throughout the day.
John John Florence of O'ahu's North Shore received the only perfect 10 score of the day and tied for third place.
As a bonus for the surfers, each heat winner received $100 to go toward travel costs.
"I never won this much before," Layer said while clutching his $300. "I don't even know what to do with it."
Final results
1, Albee Layer, $300. 2, Koa Smith, $300. 3 (tie), John John Florence, Kiron Jabour, Granger Larsen, Dege O'Connell, $200. Also: $100 each for Brennan Boudreau, Matthew Costa, Dylan Melamed, Tyler Newton, Taro Pineda, Symon Rowlands, Aaron Swanson and Derek Wong.
Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.
