ALOHA CLASSIC
Winning the Aloha wasn’t really a thought in my head, I just wanted to snatch a few dollars of the prize money at my home base. But I think you always have that thought that you could win it, well maybe not. I am not sure how confident I am these days. I believe there is no one who gets to sail Ho’okipa more than I do, so I at least did have that local knowledge advantage over the touring pros. The conditions were epic! I think if there were ever a chance to win it, it would be in those type of conditions. Big, messy, bumpy, and no tricks for the young guns! The wind was on the light side and the waves were huge, with messy bumps going down the face. It seems like Ho’okipa has been messy quite a bit when it gets big, especially with the west swells, and luckily this one wasn’t too west and was holding pretty good. On the last day when it was small and perfect for tricks, Brawzinho is unbeatable in those conditions and to put in a jump, I felt I had no chance! I was super nervous and kind of annoyed as well because everyone was telling me that we weren’t going to run it. Luckily, I was smart enough to not believe them and try and get my head around the fact the judges were probably going to eke out a full result. I remember though seeing Brawzinho crash on his first back loop in our super final and I was like, oh wow maybe I have just been thrown a bone. For the next twenty-five minutes the wind died so that took out his double loop chances and maybe rattled his cage. I don’t know why that happened but man I was pretty lucky. You can’t really describe what it feels like to win an event like this; it feels like maybe my sweetest victory. To win it at 40 years old, way past your prime, way past your goals of doing it, well that was amazing. I was very surprised, shocked, happy, honoured to be able to still go out there and sail with the best of them.