It was the ‘extras’ bar of the heat analyser that so succinctly summed it up. At the end of the timeline of the first heat of day two between fancied hometown hero Kolohe Andino and Jadson Andre, sat a star, which when hovered over read, ‘Kolohe Andino Big Frustration’.
Kolohe and Jaddy had just surfed a tight heat to start the day, and it was Kolohe who took off with seconds remaining chasing a score of 5.76 to keep his hometown campaign alive. It was a fun looking little right and Kolohe threw everything he had at it, perhaps a little too much, as he just overcooked a couple of turns and had to recover slightly.
The judges reviewed and the surfers moved to the beach awaiting the score. A cameraman bravely perched by the young Californian as he waited to see if the judges would reward his last effort and send him into round three.
They did not.
The cameraman, sensing danger, slowly and carefully backed away like Homer Simpson through Flanders’ hedge as the news penetrated Kolohe’s being.
Before he was a surfboard length away little rascal let fly with a flurry of heartfelt punches to his locker. This continued for a few seconds before the feed cut.
Unfortunately we can’t bring you the clip, you’ll have to check it out yourself, but here’s a couple more clips of Kolohe so you can get the idea.
The next heat saw another top seed fall when Miguel Pupo got the best of Michel Bourez. Much like yesterdays heat between Wilko and Evan G, the slightly rampier lefts did the trick for Miguel, who rotated his way to a much-needed victory. I like the way Miguel surfs and I’m stoked to see him advance.
From there it got better for the top seeds. Joan Duru convincingly iced Nat Young, Adrian Buchan dispatched Stu Kennedy, Wiggoly wailed on Leo and the always-entertaining Italo Ferreira got the win over an in trouble Jack Freestone.
The last heat of the day saw the best performance of the round. Zeke Lau pulled no punches in the lead up to this comp, dropping an instagram post in which he proclaimed himself as the winner of the Hurley Pro Trestles.
If this performance is anything to go by, Zeke is so far walking the walk. Relying on his power-base Zeke destroyed a couple of lowers rights with animalistic intent. Sorry Ethan Ewing, but if there’s anyone channeling AI right now, it’s this Hawaiian.
With the forecast set to deliver a bit more size, the coming days could produce some great surfing. Stay tuned.
