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WORLD DEAF SURF CHAMPIONSHIPS HIT WAIKIKI
International contingent makes best of small surf at Queens
By:
Paul McDonnell
Photos: James Queen
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August 12, 2009
8311 visits
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Surf contests are all about timing -- sometimes you score, and other times, well, you just make the best of it.
After being bombarded with a series of sizable south swells, the waves on Oahu's South Shore nearly disappeared completely for the three-day World Deaf Surfing Championships took place last month.
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Deaf competitors came from as far away as Israel, Ireland and South America with the majority of competitors coming from Australia, Japan and the United States. At final count, there were over 110 heat entries for the 2009 Ota Cup World Deaf Surfing Championships. Due to the small waves, and the break being better known as a longboarding wave than a performance wave, there were many last-minute entries into the longboarding division with shortboarders and bodyboarders scrambling to rent or borrow longboards. 18-year-old Japanese wonderkid Hiroyuki Takemoto stormed his way into first place for the shortboarding division, taking away the shortboarding championship title away from Huntington Beach's Darcy De La O who had won every WDSC Shortboarding Championships since the first deaf contest in Baja, Mexico in 2001. Local resident, Paul McDonnell who was the favorite going into the contest reclaimed the Longboarding Championship after a 2nd place finish in Miyazaki, Japan in 2007. Paul also claimed the first ever-deaf SUP championships title. CJ Soto from Carlsbad, California easily nabbed the women's shortboarding title, with Maui's Misella Tomita taking the women's longboarding title. Despite the small waves, the bodyboarding divisions were fiercely fought with Kauai's Adam Farrington taking the men's title. The women's bodyboarding division was filled out with Japanese competitors resulting in Kiyo Watanabe taking a surprise upset win over veteran professional Yumie Hora despite also winning two years ago in Japan. However, the favorite part of some of the competitors and organizers was not the contest itself, but the meeting of new friends and finding out just how small the deaf world is. Florence Rapozo, co-chair of the event said that she "received a lot of positive feedback from the fans and competitors about the event." Her favorite part however was sharing aloha with the visitors. "That was my favorite thing about the whole event," she said. Ray Rapozo, the other co-chair said that his favorite moment of the contest was when the 5-minute warning light stopped flashing, and the green flag fell to signal the start of the first heat on the first day. "We made it happen," he said with a smile. "I know the surf was small to begin with, and I really wish it could have been bigger but you can't predict Mother Nature months in advance." Ray also said it was a very stressful and difficult event to put together due to the requirements placed forth by the City of Honolulu. In the end, the Hawaii Deaf Surfriders Association had to hire Wendell Akoi, a local contest promoter to cut through the city's red tape, obtain all the permits and provide the judging, scaffolding, lifeguards and insurance which wiped out the local deaf surf club out financially. HDSA was unable to afford trophies due to difficulty in finding significant sponsorship. However, Tatsurin Ota, a deaf Japanese surf shop-owner and shaper stepped in with hand-made trophies worth over $6000 and a few thousand dollars in additional sponsor gear and contributions from Japan. It was quickly voted upon by the Hawaiian club to name the championships event the 2009 Surf House Ota Cup as a sign of gratitude for his significant support. "I was very impressed with his trophy and sponsor contributions, I don't think I could ever thank him enough for his support," said Ray. His wife, Florence also added that she "felt inspired to keep working on making the event a success because this guy is deaf, he owns a surf shop, and he proves to everybody that there are no limits to what we can do as deaf individuals." +++ For 2011, the World Deaf Surfing Championships will be taking place in Brazil. "I am looking forward to seeing even more people enroll as more and more people find out about us," says Florence. For more information and pictures, see http://www.deafsurf.org RESULTS SHORTBOARD OPEN 1) Hiroyuki Takemoto (JAP) 2) Rodney Adams (AUS) 3) Darcy Delao (USA) 4) Andre Menezes (BRA) LONGBOARD OPEN 1) Paul McDonnell (USA) 2) Darcy Delao (USA) 3) Koichi Yamamoto (JAP) 4) Vina Cornish (USA) SUP 1) Paul McDonnell (USA) 2) Ian Slinn (AUS) 3) Matt Goodall (USA) 4) Joshua Beal (USA) Women's Shortboard 1) CJ Soto (USA) 2) Kiyo Watanabe (JAP) 3) Jennifer McDonnell (USA) Women's Longboard 1) Misella Tomita (USA) 2) Anja Meier (SWI) 3) Gisella Tomita (USA) 4) Jennifer McDonnell (USA) Women's Bodyboard 1) Kiyo Watanabe (JAP) 2) Yumie Hora (JAP) 3) Nasuki Yokote (JAP) 4) Emi Saitoh (JAP) 5) Kimie Kusaka (JAP) Mens Bodyboard 1) Adam Farrington (USA) 2) Mark Howells (AUS) 3) Ron Sagucio (USA) 4) Kaimi Seminara (USA) 5) Bowe Lani (USA) Shortboard Masters (18-30) 1) Hiroyuki Takemoto (JAP) 2) Bruno Menezes (BRA) 3) Harry Hilliar (ENG) 4) Trey Balding (USA) 5) Martin Fucci (USA) Shortboard Senior (31-40) 1) Nobuyuki Mott (JAP) 2) Joshua Beal (USA) 3) Daniel Hildebrand (AUS) 4) Matt Galster (USA) 5) Paulo Formiga (POR) Shortboard Grandmasters (41+) 1) Rodney Adams (AUS) 2) Takanori Okamoto (JAP) 3) Adrian Kaperotxipi (BASQ) 4) Tom Hengesh (USA) 5) Ido Dar-El (ISR) Longboard Masters (18-30) 1) Trey Balding (USA) 2) Henry Gosebrink (USA) 3) Harry Hilliar (USA) Longboard Seniors (31-40) 1) Paul McDonnell (USA) 2) Bowe Lani (USA) 3) Scott Leahy (AUS) 4) Jared Katakura (USA) 5) Jon Savage (USA) Longboard Grandmasters (41+) 1) Adrian Kaperotxipi (BASQ) 2) Koichi Yamamoto (JAP) 3) Stanford Shimizu (USA) 4) Jon Herbert (USA) MORE SURF NEWS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |