“It’s a getting out contest!”  This is what live stream commentator and participant Kai Katchadourian said about day one of the Aloha Classic. And in the beginning it truly was. Massive waves and very light wind made it difficult to get out. We saw John Skye for example getting hammered twice in his heat by a big wave. Yes, the conditions were rad. Sam Bittner: “With 6-8 feet waves, Hawai’ian measured, and winds building to roughly 20 knots the conditions were truly all-time.” Continentseven rider and Freestyle World Champ Dieter van der Eyken was very happy to advance one round in these conditions: “Bumpy, massive and definitely not used to riding waves this size… a bit smaller and cleaner wouldn’t hurt, big respect for the guys doing the big aerials in these conditions.. pretty happy to make it through at least one heat by playing it a bit more safe, during these survival conditions.”

Race director Duncon Coombs started the trials in the morning and the main men pro fleet directly afterwards. The judges judged the best two waverides. Some of the riders had a hard time to make it over the huge white water walls and to handle the massive current. But the locals read the sets brilliantly and showed again, who rule at Ho’okipa. Levi Siver was the clear number one from what we saw. He nailed huge Aerials off the lip, even two of them on on ride and made the conditions look so easy. Just impressive. Josh Stone, Keith Teboul, Kevin Pritchard, Marcilio Browne and Morgan Noireaux showed an outstanding performance, too and Morgan seems to be ready to defend his Aloha Classic title from 2014. From the Euro rippers Thomas Traversa was definitely the strongest, but it will be hard to win against the incredible strong locals. 12 heats of the single elimination got completed. 11 heats are missing to complete the full single elimination.

 

Aloha Classic 2015 – Photo Gallery

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