posted by Keith Sasaki on 6th January 2005
Australia's Damian King pulled off a double whammy today by winning the Rockstar Games Maui Pro in 3-6 feet surf. King, from Port Macquarie, Australia came from behind in the closing minutes of the thirty minute heat to beat fellow Aussie Mitch Rawlins, Jeff Hubbard and Toby Player. The victory, his first of the year on the International Bodyboarders Association Super Tour 2004 couldn't have come at a better time. It allowed him to successfully defend his title.
Along with King, local favorite Jimmy Hutaff from Kahalui, Maui won the No Friends Drop Knee division, in front of Leroy Kaiwi, Brandon Foster and Cody Kauhaahaa. Hutaff used a combination of local knowledge and powerful backside snaps to take home his first victory in a drop knee event.
The day started with ten riders in mathematical contention to the World Title. Slowly, upsets such as eliminations of Dave Winchester, Sean Virtue and Ryan Hardy in the quarter finals saw their hopes dashed aside. Highlights were an almost flawless demonstration by Mitchell Rawlins in heat one and deep tube riding by living legend Mike Stewart in heat four.
Hubbard and Rawlins looked extremely precise in semi one and easily advanced to the four man final. One rider, Guilherme Tamega would have to settle for third and wait on the red dirt cliff to wait and see if he would be adding another World Title to his extremely impressive CV. King and Player also looked sharp and gained the last two spots. This ended all of Andrew Lester's hopes of taking the Tour Title.
The scenario was easy. While Tamega sat, his money was all on either Rawlins or Player, two riders who weren't in Title contention. However, if Hubbard or King were to win, then his hopes to add another star to his jacket would end. For a while things were looking good for Tamega as Rawlins looked flawless. On one particular wave, the quite Aussie got the entire peanut gallery cheering when he boosted two critical reverse air spins and followed it up with a carving reverse. He backed that up with a good tube and heavy air. Hubbard couldn't connect, Player's waves weren't cooperating and King got off to a bad start. With fifteen minutes remaining, Kingy's luck changed when he found his first high score of 9.5 out of ten. He followed that up with a nine for two of his own air reverse spins. In the end, it was clear that it was between King and Rawlins. King's scores were superior on two judges sheets, while one favored Rawlins.
King summed it up perfectly during the awards ceremony by saying that many pros were skeptical about the spot chosen to host the last event of the season but opinions quickly changed. Contest organizer Corey Correa hopes to return to Honolua as one of two stops of the Hawaiian winter season.
Rockstar Games (www.rockstargames.com) makers of high tech video games, No Friends, (www.nofriends.com) are the proud sponsors of the event, along with BZ, (www.bzproboards.com) Morey Bodyboards, (www.moreybodyboards.com) Nuisance, (www.nuisance.net) Viper, (www.vipers.com) The Foam Company and Ballistic Bodyboards (www.getballistic.com) and check out www.662mob.com for photos.
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| Maui Pro: ODB Report 8th January 2005 |
| Maui Pro: Kingy Makes It Two 6th January 2005 |
| Maui Pro: Day Three - Comp Starts 4th January 2005 |
| Maui Pro: Day Two 3rd January 2005 |
| Maui Pro: Opening Press 2nd January 2005 |
| Maui Pro: Day One 2nd January 2005 |
| Rockstar Games Honolua Bay Pro 4th December 2004 |