Shion Crawford and Nora Liotta Win as Sunset Opens Hawaiian Contest Season
Sunset Opens Hawaiian Contest Season
Even though the main WSL tours have all completed competition for the year and crowned their champions, the WQS tour never really stops—and here in Hawaii, contest season is just getting started!
This past week, the Sunset Pro QS 1000 event was the first chance of the winter season for local Hawaiian surfers to start accruing points toward qualification for the 2024 Challenger Series (which is the first step toward qualifying for the world tour). Conditions ranged from overhead and rippable to small and semi-contestable, but, as always, the guys behind the event got things done. Late in the week, we saw finals day go down in fun, chest- to head-high waves, and it was a largely local affair.
The men’s final saw three local surfers and visiting Tahitian Mihimana Braye duke it out for the win and 1000 QS points, with local boy Shion Crawford taking down the W. Mihimana took second, local surfer Jackson Brunch was third, and another local boy in Diego Ferri took fourth.
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, it was all Hawaiian wahines fighting for the trophy, with young Nora Liotta taking out her first major win. Second place was Keala Tomoda-Bannert, third was Eweleiula Wong, and fourth was Haylee Boverman.
Congratulations to all of our local surfers who flared up for the event!
The next contest on the Hawaiian circuit is the HIC Haleiwa Pro, which is another QS 1000 event scheduled for Nov 26-Dec 7. After that, we have a break until January, when Pipe kick-starts the world tour. In the meantime, the Vans Pipe Masters is a specialty event that will be run this season as well.