[SURFING]

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Rusty Keaulana won the pro division of the MOKUHAWAII Longboard Open at Ala Moana Bowls yesterday.

At 36, Keaulana shows
he's far from Rusty

The veteran surfer beats the young
pups in longboard contest at Ala Moana Bowls

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By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Former world longboard champion Rusty Keaulana was at least 14 years senior to each of his fellow finalists yesterday at the MOKU HAWAII Longboard Open. A dearth of swell this summer has forced him to go fishing more than surfing.

Still, despite the age disparity and little preparation, Keaulana's near-perfect "timing" scored him a victory at the Hawaiian Longboard Federation Steinlager Series contest at Ala Moana Bowls.

Not by coincidence or luck, Keaulana, 36, was consistently in the right place at the right time in the 30-minute pro final, and surfed the best of the 1- to 2-foot waves to earn the $600 first-place prize.

"I was timing 'em from the last four heats before (the final)," said Keaulana, of the small sets that were rolling through the left-hand reef break. "That kinda helped me, putting myself in position. Every five minutes (a set would come in), because the tide was coming higher."

A late charge in the heat allowed Kapono Nahina, 22, to surf his way into second place. Another 22-year-old, Kamu Auwae, took third, while Venton Siliado, 19, placed fourth.

Keaulana was the lone big-name competitor in the event. Many of Hawaii's top longboarders were on tour in France competing in preparation for the Oxbow World Championships in Mexico at the end of next month. Keaulana could afford to stay at home because he already has a wild-card entry to the Oxbow.

"I had time for this competition, so I decided to show up," Keaulana said. "Half of the boys are not here, so it's a big difference.

"(But) it feels good to win, get back in line again. The waves were really small; just had to pull out some magic out of the book and hopefully put it together."

By timing the sets, Keaulana routinely snagged the second or third wave of each one -- usually the best shaped and biggest, allowing for critical maneuvers and long rides.

The former world champ totaled 22.7 points (out of 30) for his top three scoring rides of the final. He also had the highest individual wave score (8.8) for a 2-foot wall he caught and carved all the way to the inside at approximately the midpoint of the heat.

Nahina started slow, but managed to snag a series of strong rides in the latter half of the final to score 20.7 points. Auwae and Siliado were a ways back at 13.2 and 12.5, respectively.

Energized by the competitive boost from his MOKU result, Nahina was set to fly to California soon after the contest to prepare for next weekend's U.S. Open at Huntington Beach.

"I'm stoked, I've been doing really bad in the past couple of contests," Nahina said. "This gives me my confidence back.

"In the beginning (of the heat), I was kind of stressing out; I was just nervous. But I seemed to get one of the better waves later on in the heat, and from that point on, I guess I got some good luck."

Siliado, a converted shortboarder surfing for the first time in the professional longboard division, also won the 15-19 age group earlier in the day. He said he has been longboarding regularly only for a few months.

But a difficulty in getting shortboards and the greater number of competitive shortboarders helped convince him to stick with boards over 9-feet long for a while.

"I just decided to do it for fun, and I ended up making the (pro) final," Siliado said. "I thought I wasn't even going to make it, but I ended up surfing against guys like Rusty, so I was stoked about that. I wasn't expecting to do that good. I just came to the beach and surfed."

Other winners yesterday included Pinoi Makalena in the Wahine division and Atilla Jobbagyi in the 20-29 final. Almost 200 surfers competed in 12 divisions over two days. The final HLF contest is set for Sept. 14-15 at Kuhio Beach.