Monday, November 16, 1998 8
Small waves a
big hit with
California surfer
Tudor captures the G-Shock
By Greg Ambrose
Hawaiian Pro Longboard title
Special to the Star-BulletinJoel Tudor's prayers were finally answered yesterday at Haleiwa.
For years the California longboarder has beseeched the surf gods to grant him fun waves in Hawaii, only to watch local longboarders win the events in towering surf.
Tudor's eyes lit up early yesterday as he watched the shy little lefts breaking at Haleiwa's Ali'i Beach. He surfs goofy-foot and would ride facing the waves -- his smooth noseriding technique would be accentuated in the small surf.
His island competitors were dismayed when contest officials opted to send surfers out into the tiny waves for the final rounds of the inaugural $10,000 G-Shock Hawaiian Pro Longboard Invitational Championship.
Hawaii surfers were hoping to ride Haleiwa's customary large, powerful waves to victory and maintain momentum into the Oxbow World Longboard Championship in the Canary Islands later this week.
With many of the world's top longboarders departing imminently for the Canaries, officials delighted Tudor by turning the surfers loose in limp 2- to 3-foot surf.
"The surf was only knee- to waist-high," said former world longboard champion Bonga Perkins of Haleiwa. "It's a bummer because Haleiwa is the big-wave spot. It's sad it had to end on a little note."
The Hawaii surfers swallowed their disappointment and made a game of it. But by the final heat it became obvious they would be beaten in their own waves.
"Everybody was just part of the Joel Tudor show," said Perkins, who was unhappy to settle for second place. "None of the other three guys including myself could come close. We might as well have just handed him the trophy.
"He would be getting the nines (on scores) and we would get the fives. It seems that the judges saw it different than us."
Tudor spent the day putting on a clinic of traditional longboard surfing as he gracefully walked to the nose and back, milking the long lefts of every ounce of energy all the way to the beach.
"I feel like I just climbed the Himalayas. I'm really stoked," Tudor said after receiving his trophy and the $6,000 winner's check.
He then performed a bit of ho'oponopono by dedicating his victory to late Makaha surfer Rell Sunn.
"I've known her since I was 11 years old," Tudor said. "She was very inspirational and always very friendly and helpful when I needed assistance and advice. So to dedicate my win to her is the least I can do.
"I just wanted to get the longest noserides of anybody. Long lefts at Haleiwa, it was a perfect day for my kind of longboarding -- noseriding. I don't like it when the waves are big. I would rather ride my shortboards.
"I'm from California, where the waves don't normally get too big."
"I'm hoping the waves in the Canaries are at least four or five feet," Perkins said. "I don't care how cold it is. We'll just cross our fingers and see what happens. The past Oxbow World Championships have been blessed with big waves."
