SURFING
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Keegan Edwards carved his way to the Steinlager Pro Longboard championship at Kuhio Beach in Waikiki yesterday.
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Edwards gets the wave he needs at the finish
By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Professional longboarder Keegan Edwards saved his best for last in more ways than one to take the fifth contest of the Steinlager Shaka Longboard Series yesterday.
After making a couple of pro finals in earlier series contests but falling short of victory, the 25-year-old Honolulu surfer was able to secure his first Steinlager win this year in the series finale by nabbing the highest-scoring ride of yesterday's final on his last wave of the heat.
"It's actually turned out to be a pretty good year for me," said Edwards, who picked up $1,200 for besting the 19 other competitors in the division. Among his other results, he also won the last non-series Hawaii pro event he entered and placed fifth at the world championships in France in May.
"I'm stoked to get the check and pay some bills," Edwards continued, "and hopefully I can tie this in to some sponsorships. (The win) makes me hungry, but I need some help."
In hard-to-come-by, 1- to 4-foot-face surf at the Queen's break in Waikiki, Edwards scored a set wave with only 4 minutes remaining in the 30-minute, four-surfer decider.
He arched on the nose of his board to start, then transitioned into a sequence of carving maneuvers as he worked his last wave for 8.33 (out of 10 maximum) points. It was added to an earlier 7.00 score to give Edwards a winning, best-two-wave total of 15.33 points.
After winning the previous three series contests in a row, Honolulu's Duane DeSoto finished in second place with 13.83 total points. Ewa Beach's Isaac Kaneshiro (8.84) placed third and Honolulu's Ned Snow (7.00) fourth after he managed to catch just one wave.
"I'm just stoked I got a wave that broke," Edwards said. "Me and Duane were battling it out there for a while."
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Surfer Keegan Edwards rode his way to the Steinlager Pro Longboard championship at Kuhio Beach yesterday.
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Said DeSoto: "I bobbled a little on some of my early waves, and I guess that was the difference. There were so few waves in our heat that we could only deal with what came through at the time. There were just so few, it was a situation where you just gotta go, even though there could be a better one behind."
After winning the first series event back in April and - unlike the other finalists - participating in all five, Kaneshiro won the series' overall pro title with 3,956 points. DeSoto (3,900) finished second, with Edwards (2,289.7) and Snow (2,358) both well back.
The 33-year-old Kaneshiro began his pro career as a shortboarder, and has only been longboarding competitively since the start of the year.
To win the series "is great for me," he said, "but I was lucky everyone wasn't here (in Hawaii) for the first event and I was able to get an early lead. I really wanted to win today, but unfortunately the waves didn't come my way. I tried my best."
The Steinlager finale will end today with the finals for 12 amateur divisions and approximately 175 other longboarders hitting the water.
In the only other division final held yesterday, Honolulu's Kai Sallas won the stand-up paddle surfing title with 13.90 points for his top two waves. No prize money was awarded.
Rounding out the finish order after the 30-minute final were Bonga Perkins (13.16), Kamu Auwae (8.33) and Scotty Fong Jr. (6.83).
Leleo Kinimaka won the series' overall stand-up paddle surfing title.