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SKINNING IT
Bryan Hewitson walks all over Florida's finest to win the Quiksilver/Surf Central Treasure Chest Pro Am
Photos: All photos: Mark Hill/ESM
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April 5, 2007
3329 visits
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Head high surf is not something Floridians take for granted.
Saturday morning, a stacked field of 88 of the state's finest surfers came frothing over the dunes ready to claim some of the $10,000 sitting in the Surf Central Treasure Chest.
Eventual winner Bryan Hewitson was battling a heavy head cold along with a severely swollen throat and sinus infection. "I just had to give myself a Kick in the Ass to get off the couch," he said. "I was so sick!" Two hours later and breaking a few speed limits on the way, Hewy arrived two minutes before his heat. |
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Hewy paddled out, opened his account with an 8.07, which was highest score of the day at that point. Hewy staked his claim, and came in early. Up until then, a few notable skins to get on a little roll were Daniel Bonner, Wesley Cich, Denny Gilespie, Both Peter Mendia, and Adam Wickwire, ripped for two skins good for $450. Not a bad morning's work. After winning one Skin easily, 2006 King of the Peak winner Jeremy Johnston seemed that he was ready to start banking, but was stopped by Jupiter's Jensen Callaway. Current Jr. Pro points leader, Travis Beckmann, also was looking dangerous, but only came up with only one Skin on day one, as did Justin Jones (another former KOP winner) who's familiar with the Skins format. After Hewy opened his account, it was no stopping him with an 8.4, then a 7.8, an 8.56, then a 7.06, and then a 9.5 that went something like this: Big late drop under the curtain on a solid overhead wave, bottom turn straight up into a power gouge wrap around arch with spray flying everywhere followed by a big snap, a wrap around cutty as he came out of the cutback; this wedge peak loomed up and he backdoored it from way way behind. It was a perfectly open dry barrel with spit followed by a a couple white water bounces. Easily a justified 9.5, amazing considering no one else even came close to getting barreled. Hewy ended the day with one more 8.5, and basically surfed through six straight heats from heat 11 all the way to heat 21. His average scores combined for the day were 8.3! What else was amazing was four of these scores came from claiming his first wave. Straight up! The turns he was throwing down were like a cross between Occy and Mick Lowe just raw rail power spray throwing chunks! At $225 a Skin, Hewy already pocketed $1350 on the first day. On Sunday, the swell dropped and the Skin draw was flipped upside down. With smaller conditions on tap, things started out with Aaron Cormican. Gorkin knew he needed to stay on a strong roll and was hitting some upside-down backside reos and S-ing his board back and forth and through the reform that looked similar to the Kiddy Bowl at Rocky Point. Gorkin had the lineup and reform mastered four Skins later, and well he advanced into a sudden death make-or-break situation head-to-head with the mighty Hewy. Gorkin had Hewy on the ropes with a few 6+ rides, but refused to make the claim. Gorkin knew with Hewy sitting out the back, he better get at least a 7.5 to nail the coffin. It was a bit of Cat and Mouse, and came down to dying seconds, where Hewy squeaked by with less than a point. Later, it seemed Hewy may have met his match when the two former King of the Peak winners went head to head in Heat 18, Jeremy Johnston certainly no competitive sloucher and one not to roll over -- especially to a guy that has 10 years on him. But Hewy just proved to be unbeatable and decided he wanted all the money, and wanted to take the wife and kids to Disney World. Hewy's effort proved to break a Skin's record with 12 consecutive skins bettering CJ Hobgood's 11 skins. Bryan walked away with $2700.00. The Surf Central Air Show final at the end of day two saw Tommy O'Brien taking the flight jacket with a clean backside "$500" Rotator sticking it clean. Other notable air mongrel's Alek Parker, Ryan Heavyside, Justin Ellingham, and Jensen Callaway put on a great show for the crowd. RESULTS Bryan Hewitson - 12 Skins $2700.00 Adam Wickwire -4 Skins $900.00 Aaron Cormican- 4 Skins $900.00 Travis Beckmann -3 Skins $675.00 Peter Mendia -3 Skins $675.00 Dannel Bonner -2 Skins $450.00 Brian Denning -2 Skins $450.00 Sean Bowman- 2 Skins $450.00 Ron Keindl -2 Skins $ 450.00 Denny Gelispie -1 Skin $225.00 Jensen Callaway-1 Skin $225.00 Jeremy Jonston 1 Skin $225.00 Justin Jones 1 Skin $225.00 Robert Rohmann 1 Skin$225.00 Wesley Ciche -1 Skin $225.00 Scotty Connel- Skin $225.00 Jon Leaf -1 Skin $225.00 Scott Posner -1 Skin $225.00 MORE SURF NEWS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |