Well, shit. This didn’t age well.
But hey, look at me. I’ll own it; I can take a Loss.
As soon as I got done writing off Seth Moniz on reddit, he went and did this. In fairness, I will say that Teahupoo is a wave that one would expect Seth to do well at. I just don’t think I expected him to win a CT contest at this point in his career. I guess Miggy Pupo just did it a few years ago, at this very venue, mind you.
Eimeo Czermak
Yago Dora
Barron Mamiya
Al Cleland
Italo
Griffin Colapinto
This was Seth’s Hit List. What a crazy lineup. He’s the second guy to come out of the Oscar Berry Round (R1) and make it to the Final (Morgan Ciblic, New Zealand) this year.
“I had a weird feeling, just coming here to this trip,” Seth told Strider in the lineup immediately following the win, “this whole week has been surreal. Had this crazy momentum every time, just in perfect sync with the ocean.”
Seth jumped up 12 spots on the rankings, now sitting at 19th for the year. He’ll still have some work to do, but it will be interesting to see how he surfs with a renewed confidence.
“It’s weird, I think when I get into these sticky situations and I really need to clutch up, I just, I somehow pull it off.”
If you didn’t see it, Seth had a pretty funny interview with Joe Turpel in the Awards Ceremony, and I am 100% sure you will see a ton of memes from it all over social media.
“Right when I came out of the barrel, the first person I saw, and I had to kick my board out, was Hannah, Griffin’s girlfriend, and I thought I killed her!”
Just less than 2 weeks until the waiting period for Fiji opens, and there is only 1 more event after that before the ‘post season’ – Lowers in September. It’s crunch time.
Seth dropped the highest Heat Total of his career in the Final (18.17) to combo longtime buddy Griffin Colapinto for the Win. And he kicked his board out at Griff’s girl too! Sheesh! A huge Congratulations to Seth Moniz for winning the Outerknown Tahiti Pro at Teahupoo. Massive, well earned maiden victory.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield