The Qualifying Series is so gnarly. I wouldn’t say every person in the draw could win, but every person surfs good enough to make some heats. It reminds me a lot of college basketball, in comparison to pro basketball. These “kids” – if you will – are hungry. They are trying to juice every drop they can out of surfing. It brings a lot of energy to the events.
I was down on the sand for a couple hours this morning for Day One, the Round of 128, and I watched the rest of the day on the Youtube stream. I love this shit. Especially these events right here at home. I find it rad to see guys and gals ripping my local break, especially when the wind turns on and it goes to shit. It motivates me to get out there in any condition, cause they can rip it no matter what.
Anyways, here’s what went down on Day One.
The morning started out pretty fun; peaky, but drained out. Really low tide seemed to suck the life out of it. Around chest to shoulder high, maybe a little bigger on the sets. Two turns would get you near the good range, and an 11 point heat total would have got you through 14 out of 16 heats. Low scores today. I predict we see that scale jump up a bit starting tomorrow.
It was never very clean. From the start of the morning there was some lump and bump on the face. Morning sickness, so they call it. Rip currents passed through the lineup in the early heats with the low tide. I personally hate when it gets like that. It can be tough to surf. This isn’t about me though. And for good reason – these guys were actually ripping it.
Early standouts included: Wesley Santos, Shea Bruhwiler, Yago Ramos, and Blaze Roche. I don’t know where Shea is from, but the other three surf out at the pier just about every day. Wesley had a solid three turn combo for a 6.83. Watching his heat live, I could see he knew exactly what kind of waves he was looking for. Shea Bruhwiler stuck a nice no-grab air reverse in towards the pier in Heat 3 – 7.17. Yago Ramos, who coaches a local high school surf team (Marina), nabbed a couple of 5’s to win his heat. He was surfing strong on the backhand, and notably knocked out HB Legend Brad Ettinger. Blaze Roche surfed a good heat that I watched from the pier. He picked off a running left down the beach and tagged it thrice. Pair that with an alley oop to snap combo, and he was well on his way to the Round of 96.
This brief little hour from around Heat 4 to Heat 7 or so might have been the best period of the day. The wind really started to affect things after that. I stayed down there and supported my boy Lucas Taub who surfed in Heat 7. He had a really tough luck loss. He was in advancing position for basically the entire heat. He played perfect defense at the end by holding off the 3rd place surfer with under a minute left, but the ocean had another couple of waves to send through. Shane McNulty, needing a 2 range score, snuck into a waist high left and snapped it as vertically as he could for a 2.9, knocking Lucas out. I was bummed for him, but he had a solid showing, and had a great attitude about the loss. He has a great attitude about life in general, and I was stoked to be down there supporting and hanging for a bit.
Afternoon standouts were: Ryder Smith, Dylan Sloan, and surprisingly, Jacob Szekely. Ryder Smith stuck a pretty big air revo that was basically the highlight of the day. I’ve judged this kid a fair bit, and when he gets some momentum going he can get crazy hot with his land rate on airs. Dylan Sloan is another HB Local who fucking rips. I’ve judged him and seen him surf a lot, and he has arguably the most potential out of any surfer coming out of Huntington Beach. He just needs to keep his head on straight. He surfed a strong heat, dropping a 12.16 Heat Total en route to a Win, and shouted out his teachers at Huntington Beach High School for letting him skip classes today. ‘Zeke’ as they call him, surfed in the very last heat of the day. The waves were absolute dogs’ breakfast at this stage, but he looked strong. I went back and rewatched, if not only for his post-heat interview. Guess he’s premiering a new movie in town this weekend too – can’t wait.
Like I said, these events are so stacked. Some heavy hitters already went down in the draw. A couple of notable names: Logan Radd, David Do Carmo, Hagan Johnson, Lukas McMahon, and Tanner Sandvig. Every one of those guys could have made more than a few rounds. That’s what makes a QS event so special. That’s why I live for these.
There is no Heat Analyzer for Qualifying Series events. Don’t ask me why. I’m thinking about hitting up the WSL and asking if they need to hire someone to set that up. I don’t think they know how many of us are full time QS watchers. Anyways, you can catch the full day replay here if you are a die hard like myself.
The Round of 96 will run tomorrow, and there’s some new names thrown into the draw. We still won’t see the top seeds yet, but the talent level is only going to rise. Waves are slated to be really fun, and I’ll be down there for a few hours to catch some action. You can watch the full day live here if you want. I’ll be back again soon with another update from your favorite surf event of the year, the Jacks Pro. See you then.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield