Billabong Jr Pro Honors Memory of Ronnie Burns
October 30, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
The Billabong Jr Pro in Memory of Ronnie Burns ran in beautiful conditions at Sunset Beach, Hawaii this week. The contest, which is the last of the Hawaii qualifiers for the ASP World Jr Championships held in Australia, had 3-4 ft waves throughout the day with some solid 5 foot sets coming in for the Semi's and the Finals. The winds were light and variable without a cloud in the sky creating flawless conditions.
Monday was the 2nd day of competition for the Jr Pro and started with the Jr Men's Round of 32. Standouts in the early rounds included Dusty Payne, Kai Barger, Dylan Goodale and Clay Marzo. In the end, it was Dusty, Kai, Casey Brown and Levi Gonsalves in the Final.
Before the Jr Men's Final paddled out we saw the conclusion of the Jr Women's. The Jr Women's had been run thru the Semi's on Day 1 of the event leaving only the Final for Day 2. The Jr Womens Final included Carissa Moore, Sunset Beach's Coco Ho, Alessa Qiuzon and Leila Hurst.
Carissa started off the Final strong, opening up with a 7.5. Before any of the other girls had a chance to get an opening score, Carissa found the bomb of the day, a solid 5 ft set wave that came right to her. Carissa dropped in the bomb, came off the bottom into a beautiful top turn that had the whole beach cheering. She finished the wave with several more solid carves and ended up posting the high score of the Jr Women's event, a 9.5, that put her in a demanding first place with a 17 point total. With all of the other girls comboed, the battle for 2nd was on. Leila Hurst opened her account strong and moved into 2nd place for the majority of the final. Alessa carved the rights on her backside with precision in the challenging surf. Coco Ho had trouble finding waves at first and sat in 4th for the majority of the heat. With the timer ticking down there was flurry of waves in the last minute. Coco finally found the wave that she was looking for and produced a beautiful combination of carving roundhouse cutbacks that gave her a 7.27 and moved her into 2nd place and out of combo position. Alessa and Leila both found waves of there own in the final minute also. Alessa was able to get the score needed to surpass Leila and Leila unfortunately found herself knocked from 2nd to 4th place in the dying seconds. All of the girls surfed amazing and what a great final to witness.
Jr Womens Final
1. Carissa Moore
2. Coco Ho
3. Alessa Quizon
4. Leila Hurst
With all of the waves coming thru in the final minutes of the Jr Women's Final, the Jr Men's Final started off a little slow. Kai, Casey, Dusty and Levi, all good friends, found themselves "talking story" in the lineup waiting for the waves. They didn't have to wait long. Kai opened up his account first, scoring a wave in the 6 point range. Soon after, all of the surfers caught wave after wave, with a flurry of action that kept the judges busy. When the action finally settled down and the score came thru, 1st thr 3rd found themselves separated by half of a point, with Dusty sitting in 1st with a 13.65, Casey in 2nd with a 13.5 and Kai in 3rd with a 13.15. Levi, still totally in striking distance, sat in 4th with an 11. With everyone in contention, the beach sat still waiting for the next set in the final seconds. The final set came in with a little over a minute left on the clock. Casey and Kai both caught waves, leaving Dusty out the back. Dusty found a bomb of his own and went to town, dropping straight in coming off the bottom and straight up into the lip, blasting a lip to floater combo before air dropping back to the flats. He finished strong with some more carves and sealed his fate with the Jr Men's high score of the day, a 9.5. Dusty won the final with that wave, leaving Casey in 2nd, Kai in 3rd and Levi in 4th.
Jr Men's
1. Dusty Payne
2. Casey Brown
3. Kai Barger
4. Levi Gonsalves
The amazing display of surfing put on by the Jr Men and Jr Womens finished off the Jr Pro season for the year in Hawaii and the qualifiers for the Billabong Asp World Junior Championships for Hawaii have been decided. Cheer on your favorites to an ASP World Title come the first week of January.
Qualifiers
Jr Men's
Kai Barger
Kiron Jabour
Casey Brown
Sebastian Zeitz
Jr Women's
Carissa Morre
Alessa Quizon
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