Triple Crown: Florence Goes Mach 1 in Haleiwa´s QS Battleground
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| John John Florence ripping Haleiwa 2016 Triple Crown Image JJFlorence.com |
The first event of the 3 Event Series of the Triple Crown of Surfing got off to a bomb start at Hawaii's North Shore. Day one Round One -Opening Day of competition was impressive but Round Two Day Two of competition was on fire and pumping. Huge walls of water opened up beautifully dangerous. In the end it was JJ Florence who took another win.
On November 18 -after long days of heats Florence took the Hawaiian Pro -first event of the Triple Crown at North Shore Hawaii.
Unless you have been living in a cave you know who John John Florence is and what he can do and what he has been doing. Early this year he took the Eddie Would Go, recently was crowned 2016 World Champion in Portugal and now comes back home to Hawaii and takes the first jewel of the Triple Crown. He is after the entire 2016 Kingdom and perhaps more.
Florence 2016 campaign has not been the smoothest ride. Florence has worked really hard and faced all kinds of obstacles and challenges but when they asked him what he was listening to at Haleiwa before going into th5e water he simply said ; “Smooth Jazz” and well that just says it all...
Florence took the win on Finals Day tearing heat after heat and battling out a tie-breaker final against QS Federico Morais Portuguese Powerhouse.
JJ Florence “win was a narrow one, however, as he beat out Portuguese powerhouse Frederico Morais in a tie-breaker. Morais and a crew of Qualifying Series Dark Horses also went on a finals day tear, and caused a massive shakeup in the QS rankings”.
Haleiwa delivered rip currents, power surfing, carves and small boards in big wave conditions, the evolution of surf at its best on the first days. The final days saw more template wave sets but rippable without doubt. QS riders rose up against the perfect conditions of the mystical Haleiwa.
The QS surfers are hungry for spot in the CT World Tour and lined up to progress through the early Rounds of Haleiwa. Flags from differents parts of the World were hoisted to meet the massive swells of the North Shore. Conditions were ideal and tricky, dangerous and just fun to ride and watch.
Japanese, Portuguese, Brazilian, Australian, Costa Rican, French, Uruguayan, South African, Tahitians, Argentinean, US and Hawaiian local riders took to the Haleiwa battle with flare. The amount of water moving through the break was crazy.
What is at stake for the QS riders besides the privilege of taking up an event of the Triple Crown in the North Shore Hawaii? Rankings and open slots for the CT World Tour. The first two Triple Crown events have a price of 10 thousand points giving any QS rider which takes a win in both events a solid door to the CT World Tour Circuit. For those who do not know it the Triple Crown events -three in total are Haleiwa Hawaii Pro, Sunset and Pipeline Pipe Masters.
Despite coming from Jaws and the Big Wave WSL World Tour Stop the Hawaiian Pro had nothing to envy on the first days of swell. The big bowls created wipeouts and riders struggled to hang on. The surprise this year was the choice made by most riders to go out in this type of conditions with relatively small boards, 6.8s or so. QS emerging stars ambitious for the show carved, hacked and vertically attacked the wall and lips of the big wave stage of the North Shore.
A show to watch. Pure surfing, profesional at its best. In the early heats of the Haleiwa event QS riders threw numbers and scores up to the 8s and 9s -numbers which usually are tagged to big CT World Championship Stars -the veterans.
Hiroto Arai, Griffin Colapinto, Tanner Gudauskas, Vasco Ribeiro, Mitch Coleborn, Brett Simpson, Frederico Morais were some of the QS names making it to Round 3 and surfing in good composure, flow and strength.
Among the most exciting Heats of the early days was that of Vasco Ribeiro and Tanner Gudauskas and the Heat of Griffin Colapinto going head to head against Mitch Coleborn.
Another impressive heat was that of QS surfer Federico Morais. Round 2 Heat 12 Morais hacked a 9.77 almost perfect wave backing it up with a 8.10. Going head to head against Bret Simpson who also picked up an excellent range score dropping 9.07 hovering over the lip in a final demonstration move. But that last turn of the ride but that was not enough to counter attack Morais inspiration. Standards ran high at Haleiwa...Morais would make it to the final all the way against the wall JJ Florence.
Day Two of competition delivered an even more incredible rhythm of unstoppable huge wave after wave, flawless the rose... and broke open and rose again.
As rounds moved up through the rip the ranks intensified and bigger names began to draw the line. Among
By the time Round 3 came knocking on Haleiwa´s door the big CT names began making their appearances. John John Florence -the 2016 World Champ, Adriano de Souza, Kanoa Igarashi -awesome performance through the year, Keanu Asing -another 2017 breaker, the one and only King Kelly Slater -comfortable at Hawaii, Caio Ibelli, Conner Coffin, Davey Cathels, Sebastian Zietz -hacking the World Tour hard, Jordy Smith giving another inspiring year, Stuart Kennedy, Matt Banting, Italo Ferreira, Wiggolly Dantas, Adrian Buchman, Miguel Pupo, Jason Andre, Ryan Callinan, Adam Melling and Matt Wilkinson show up to play.
CT “Usual Suspects” tried to block the way of Haleiwa´s QS passage and gave QS riders a real problem. To see QS and CT elite riders going head to head is unique and happens only at this level at the Triple Crown. The Triple Crown first two events, Haleiwa and Sunset are the only events in which one can see so many QS talented riders going at it. The installed establishment and those who are coming to shake things up. The best riders of both first events get a spot at Pipeline Pipe Masters, the final jewel of the Triple Crown. The CT blockway proved to rattle with what WSL called “QS Dark Horses”.
During Round 3 -where QS riders met the blocking Elite the ocean conditions began to dim out but still some quality waves were delivered.
Some CT surfers made their way through easy while other heats saw QS riders which had been surfing Haleiwa from the start well tuned up and refusing to go home.
Round 3 Heat One saw Adriano de Souza taking a fall despite leading most of the heat. Adriano was left waiting out the back for a final wave which he ended up wearing on the head. Adriano´s loose veteran style showed off but was not enough to pay for the party. Gony Zubizarreta from Spain took the lead of that Heat -the QS rider moved on again to further days and more points.
Heat 2 Round 3 saw number one of the QS Ranking pack his bags. Kanoa Igarashi fell while Marc Lacomare from France and Jeremy Florence also from France moved on through.
Heat 3 saw a flip in conditions as Keanu Asing broke the pattern for CT riders taking control and the heat over QS surfers.
Heat 4 upped the bar. Once again Kelly Slater showed up to play dropping a perfect 9 and backing it up with a 6.5 taking the heat and passing on to further rounds. Slater´s 9 was the highest score of the day besides a perfect ride from QS rider Colapinto peaking up to the near 10s.
Heat 5 saw Caio Ibelli losing to QS riders and the QS up-the-ladder movement continued on Heat 6 with non other than Leonardo Fioravanti who delivered 8.77 and 8.6 waves. Conner Coffin saw a fast way home on that heat as well.
Heat 7 Jack Freestone and Davey Cathels took the lead taking down the Japanese promises of the QS Hiroto Arai and Hiroto Ohhara.
Heat 8 the World Champ JJ Florence drew blood with a 8.43 wave backing up his score with an impressive 7.87. Right behind him -with a difference of slightly over 3 points was Sebastian Zietz. This heat which proved to be too much to handle for the QS riders Torrey Meister from Hawaii and Dion Atkinson from Australia.
Griffin Colapinto - making strong noise in Haleiwa big conditions proved that he is feeling just as comfortable surfing 7s as he is surfing 6s. Colapinto striked a 8.27 wave and then threw an almost perfect 10 another -huge statement from the rider from San Clemente and the Positive Warrior Clan. Surprisingly Tanner Gudauskas fell third off the event after really hacking the first heavy solid day at Haleiwa in that heat. However Gudauskas fell not to just anyone...Jordy Smith himself took him down.
Vasco Ribeiro, Kai Otton, Brett Simpson, Federico Morais, were some of the talented which made it through the CT Haleiwa Blocking Gates. Matt Banting, Italo Ferreira, Bede Durbidge, Wiggolly Dantas and Matt Wilkinson some of the CT Elite riders which were smashed by the QS end-of-the-year all-in break-or-make movement.
Then came days of lay...to give way to the Finals Day.
“For the first few heats of finals day at the Hawaiian Pro, everything seemed like it was business as usual. Top seeds John John Florence and Kelly Slater ruled during their Round Four wins. But few could've predicted the upsets that would ensue, as a handful of Qualifying Series dark horses also stepped up their games, and successfully turned the QS leaderboard upside down. European powerhouses Frederico Morais, Joan Duru and Marc Lacomare all made big moves in the QS ranks with strong performances. Lacomare lethal backhand approach earned a Quarterfinal win over Kelly Slater, as well as earned him a solid third-place finish. Another Frenchman, Joan Duru, reinforced his Samsung Galaxy Championship Tour dreams with a Semifinal result. And Portuguese dark horse Frederico Morais cleaned up, rocketing 19 spots up the QS ranks to No. 9, thanks to his runner-up finish. At the end of the day, though, it was all John John Florence,” WSL reported.
