Banzai Pipeline, North Shore, Oahu, HAWAII – (Friday, January 29, 2016) — The morning fired out continuous barrels as Round 1 of the Volcom Pipe Pro got underway in clean 8-10 foot surf and light offshore easterly winds. The second World Surf League (WSL) Hawaii Qualifying Series (QS) event of the season, the Volcom Pipe Pro offers a $100,000 prize purse, up to 3,000 regional ratings points, and a slot into the Pipe Invitational with the potential of advancing into the Billabong Pipe Masters, the final stop of the WSL Championship Tour.
One of the youngest competitors of the event, Maui’s Imaikalani deVault, 18, advanced behind North Shore mainstay Kai Mana Henry, 37, with a combined heat total of a 6.90.
“It’s pretty nerve wracking but it’s so cool,” deVault said about surfing against top Pipeline competitors. “I’ve been watching Kai Mana (Henry) surf out here since I was like five years old so to surf a heat with him is just like, dream come true for sure.”
The teen is working to qualify into the QS6,000 events at the end of the year and talked about the benefit of competing here in the islands.
“Being from Hawaii is definitely an advantage because you can get into events like this or the Triple Crown… just to get practice out here when other people can’t, it’s just a huge opportunity to be able to be in this contest and I’m super happy.”
Koa Smith (HAW), 21, was the standout competitor of the event so far, wowing the beach crowd with back to back nine’s – a 9.0 and a 9.67 – the two highest wave scores of the day. Smith stormed his heat against Kiron Jabour (HAW), Noa Mizuno (HAW) and Kaito Ohashi (JPN) and used prime positioning to his advantage.