SURFING
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ned Snow rode a wave during yesterday's Hawaiian Open at Queen's in Waikiki.
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Snow still catching big waves
The Big Island surfer continued his recent tear by winning the Hawaiian Open at Queen's
By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin
The big results on big boards for the man from the Big Island keep coming.
Professional longboarder Ned Snow notched his latest title yesterday, by winning the men's open final of the Corona Hawaiian Open in 1- to 4-foot-face waves at Queen's in Waikiki.
Snow's Hawaiian Open victory comes on the heels of a second-place showing at the World Longboarding Championship in Costa Rica two months ago, and a runner-up result at a contest called The Unofficial Longboard Surfing Championship at a secret spot on Oahu last week.
"I feel like there's more pressure on me since the result in Costa Rica," said the 21-year-old Snow, who earned $4,000 with yesterday's win. "So I just gotta keep it up, keep going for gold and keep going hard. I figure if I let up now, I'm just gonna get walked on, so I'm going as hard as everyone else is.
"This (contest) is a big one, definitely one of the biggest we have in Hawaii."
The Hawaiian Open was a four-day event that was part of the birthday celebration for the father of modern surfing, Duke Kahanamoku.
It was also the third and final stop on this year's United States Professional Longboard Tour.
Along with three other local surfers, Snow emerged from the stacked, 48-man international field to make for an all-Hawaii open final.
Snow started strong in the 25-minute decider, opening with an 8.63 (out of 10 maximum) score about 2 minutes in. He executed a nose ride and then three big carving maneuvers in succession on the wave for the highest single-wave score of the final.
The Big Island pro added an 8.18 after more powerful carves on his fourth and final wave of the heat, which came with about 4 minutes left and gave him his winning two-wave total of 16.81 points.
"I got a new board from my shaper, and we've been fine-tuning it and I think we've got it down," said Snow of his performance. "I just need a good wave, and I got a couple good ones out there that allowed me to link a few floaters and some foam climbs to get to the open face for some nose rides -- mixing it up."
Former world No. 2 Kekoa Uemura placed second with 14.88 points, while Venton Siliado took fourth with 12.98.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Lindsay Steinriede earned the $1,000 first prize for winning the women's division of the Hawaiian Open yesterday.
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Defending Hawaiian Open champion Kai Sallas placed third with 13.01, not able to regain his form and composure after colliding with a water photographer and falling on a ride 15 minutes in.
Among the former world champions in the field, Hawaii's Bonga Perkins and California's Colin McPhillips advanced the furthest, both going down in the semifinals.
With the caliber of competition, "it seemed like every heat we surfed from the quarterfinals on was a final," Uemura, 23, said. "You had to get the waves, and luckily we had some. ... Ned's just been getting better and better, and it was just a matter of time for him to get these big results."
In the women's open division, California's Lindsay Steinriede beat three Hawaii surfers in the 25-minute final with 14.01 points for her top two waves and took the $1,000 first prize.
Ashley Quintal (10.88) placed second, Miku Uemura (9.96) third and Megan Godinez (7.75) fourth.
"This contest is amazing, and it's so competitive," Steinriede, 21, from Dana Point, said. "To come over here and surf with girls who surf as well as the guys is huge to me. The one good thing was that there were some waves coming through, and I just happened to be in the right spot, waiting and being patient. Patience paid off."
Combined with their results at earlier stops in Florida and California this year, Taylor Jensen was named the overall U.S. men's champion and Marissa Barry the women's. Both surfers are from California.
Among the other division finals yesterday, Australia's Chey Morley won the six-man nose-riding final in which competitors were judged by the amount of time spent riding on the tip of their boards.
Morley logged a high of 18 total seconds on the nose during his top two rides, and was followed in order by Duane DeSoto, Troy Mothershead, Justin Quintal, Makamae DeSoto and Keegan Edwards.
Hawaii's Brian Keaulana and Kathy Terada won the World Tandem Surfing title and $1,000. This Week Magazine won the Legends Surf Classic, in which Honolulu businesses teamed up with local surf legends to compete against each other in a benefit for the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation.