Latest news with #Vaast
TimesLIVE
4 days ago
- Sport
- TimesLIVE
SA's Jordy Smith narrowly avoids elimination at Tahiti Pro
Tahiti's Olympic surfing gold medallist Kauli Vaast was among the standouts on Thursday as the Lexus Tahiti Pro got under way in huge, perfect waves at his home break of Teahupo'o, with California's Griffin Colapinto also starring in the heavy tubes. The venue for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Teahupo'o again delivered stellar conditions for the world's top surfers in the final event of the regular season. The top five men and women surfers at season's end win a spot in the World Surf League's one-day, winner-takes-all Finals in Fiji later this month. Vaast, who competes on the second-tier challenger series, was given a wild card and consistently found himself on the heaviest waves, racking up a two-wave total of 16.30 out of a possible 20. 'I really want to win here,' said Vaast, who made the final of the championship tour event in 2022. 'I have a second place to better. I'm surrounded by great people ... they cheer for me and I'm really proud they are here and I want to do good for them again.' Brazil's Tokyo Olympic gold medallist and reigning Tahiti Pro champion Italo Ferreira was another standout in the first heat of the morning, but it was Colapinto who finished with the highest heat score of the day with 18 points for two long, deep tubes.
The Star
5 days ago
- Sport
- The Star
Surfing-Vaast shines as Tahiti Pro starts in huge Teahupo'o tubes
Paris 2024 Olympics - Surfing - Men's Gold Medal Match - Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia - August 05, 2024. Kauli Vaast of France reacts after riding a wave during the gold medal match. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (Reuters) -Tahiti's Olympic surfing gold medallist Kauli Vaast was among the standouts on Thursday as the Lexus Tahiti Pro got underway in huge, perfect waves at his home break of Teahupo'o, with California's Griffin Colapinto also starring in the heavy tubes. The venue for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Teahupo'o again delivered stellar conditions for the world's top surfers in the final event of the regular season. The top five men and women surfers at season's end win a spot in the World Surf League's one-day, winner-takes-all Finals in Fiji later this month. Vaast, who competes on the second-tier challenger series, was given a wildcard and consistently found himself on the heaviest waves, racking up a two-wave total of 16.30 out of a possible 20. "I really want to win here," said Vaast, who made the final of the championship tour event in 2022. "I have a second place to better. I'm surrounded by great people ... they cheer for me and I'm really proud they are here and I want to do good for them again." Brazil's Tokyo Olympic gold medallist and reigning Tahiti Pro champion Italo Ferreira was another standout in the first heat of the morning, but it was Colapinto who finished with the highest heat score of the day with 18 points for two long, deep tubes. The 27-year-old from San Clemente had been relishing the even bigger surf in the lead-up to the event, charging waves he said were some of the best he had ever ridden. "That's why I started surfing, was to have the potential wave in my life. This is so satisfying for the soul. "And I love competition and competing, but when it comes to the opportunity to get the wave of your life, that's just as important to me," he said. "Now we're competing and I'm still healthy, my body's intact, and I won my first heat, so I'm psyched." South Africa's Jordy Smith, ranked No. 2 in the world, narrowly avoided a loss in the elimination round with a late, near perfect 9.5 against trials winner Teiva Tairoa of Tahiti. But Japan's Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Kanoa Igarashi, ranked fourth in the world going into Tahiti, went down to local wildcard Mihimana Braye in the elimination round, jeopardising his chance of making the Finals in Fiji. Two-time world champion Filipe Toledo of Brazil also lost in the elimination round, putting an end to his hopes of making the top five. When the women's competition gets underway, probably on Friday, 12-year-old Kelia Gallina will make history by becoming the youngest ever competitor in a world championship tour event. Gallina, who started surfing Teahupo'o before she was five years old, won the trials event and will face Australia's world No. 1 Molly Picklum and California's Lakey Peterson in the first round. (Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
West Australian
11-06-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Margaret River firebrand Jacob Willcox claims Challenger Series win at Newcastle
Margaret River surfing mainstay Jacob Willcox has earnt his first win on the Challenger Series to top the World Surf League rankings. Sunday's contest at Newcastle's Surfest followed Willcox's impressive run as a local qualifier all the way to the quarterfinals at last month's Margaret River Pro. Willcox and women's competitor Francisca Veselko from Portugal overcame a massive crowd of contestants all eager to use the series as a launch pad back to the top-rated Championship Tour. 'This has been a long time coming,' Willcox said. 'I've had a lot of losses to get this win and it feels incredible to finally get it. It's taken a lot of hard work to get here, and that was the best moment of my life on the beach just then. 'Coming in and having my crew tell me that I probably had it and share that moment with them was so special.' In the final, Willcox traded mid-range scores with Tahiti's Kauli Vaast, taking a small lead, before the ocean began to slow. Both were left waiting for more than 10 minutes for a wave until a quick flurry in the dying seconds gave Vaast one more chance. But he couldn't convert, leaving Willcox to take the win with a two-wave total of 12.30 to Vaast's 11.56. 'The final was pretty slow in the end, but I was just telling myself that sometimes the ocean just gets on your side and gives you some luck, and you find some rhythm, and I feel like this week I found some rhythm and some luck,' Willcox said. 'That's the thing with our sport, you just never know when you're going to get your moment. My moment was today, so I was stoked.' Willcox was a championship tour rookie in 2024 after years of near-misses in qualification, but he lasted only a few months before missing the mid-season cut and failing to re-qualify for 2025. The goofy-footer has been pegged as a title threat since his junior years, beating Kelly Slater as a teenage wildcard in Portugal, but has struggled to make a huge impact in the competitive arena.
