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<\/p>\nKauai’s Manuel wins U.S. Open of Surfing
\n14-year-old becomes prestigious event’s youngest champion
\nAdvertiser Staff <\/p>\n
A glimpse into the future of women’s surfing was on display yesterday at Huntington Beach, Calif.<\/p>\n
Thanks to 14-year-old Malia Manuel and 17-year-old Coco Ho, Hawai’i appears to be at the forefront.<\/p>\n
Manuel won the Women’s Honda U.S. Open of Surfing contest yesterday, becoming the youngest champion in the 27-year history of the event.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Manuel, who will turn 15 next month, is a sophomore-to-be at Kapa’a High.<\/p>\n
She beat Ho in the one-on-one final held yesterday in 1- to 3-foot waves. Ho is 17 and a senior-to-be at Elite Element Academy.<\/p>\n
“I’m so stoked right now,” said Manuel, who is from Wailua, Kaua’i. “My sponsors gave me the wildcard into this event and I was just happy to be here. To get to surf against some of my heroes and to be in the final with my friend Coco is just something I would never have dreamed of.”<\/p>\n
Just last month, Manuel and Ho were representing Hawai’i at the National Scholastic Surfing Association championships.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Open is considered one of the largest events on surfing’s World Qualifying Series, and many of the top-ranked professional females participated.<\/p>\n
Manuel received a score of 7.67 for her opening wave in the 30-minute final and maintained the lead the rest of the way. She finished with a two-wave total of 14.34 to top Ho’s score of 7.9.<\/p>\n
“There weren’t many waves out there this afternoon, which was too bad,” Manuel said. “I just got lucky that a couple linked up for me and I was able to get some scores under my belt.”<\/p>\n
Ho, who is the daughter of famous North Shore surfer Michael Ho, said: “The conditions really came down to the one who got the wave with the wall. I couldn’t find my feet, and I had to watch her catch a really good right. It was just cool being in the final because it was my goal just to make the (quarterfinals), so I’m over the moon.”<\/p>\n
Along the way to the final, Manuel and Ho each scored significant upset victories.<\/p>\n
Manuel beat former world champion Sofia Mulanovich of Peru in the quarterfinals, and then eliminated Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons in the quarterfinals. Mulanovich is currently ranked No. 1 on the elite World Championship Tour; Fitzgibbons is ranked No. 1 on the World Qualifying Series.<\/p>\n
Ho beat 2007 world champion Stephanie Gilmore of Australia in the semifinals, and Melanie Bartels of Wai’anae in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Another young Hawai’i surfer \u0097 Kaua’i’s Bethany Hamilton, 18 \u0097 made a significant charge. The shark-attack survivor advanced to the quarterfinals, then was eliminated by Gilmore.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Ho won the junior pro division, which was for surfers age 21 and younger. She beat South Africa’s Nikita Robb in the final.<\/p>\n
“To be here standing on the beach with the crowd with the (junior pro) title and the runner-up finish in the WQS, I’m really happy,” Ho said.<\/p>\n
The men’s Honda U.S. Open of Surfing will run its final day today at Huntington Beach.<\/p>\n
Hawai’i surfers still in contention are Roy Powers, Torrey Meister and Dusty Payne.<\/p>\n
Hawai’i surfers in the final of the longboard division are Ned Snow and Noah Shimabukuro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kauai’s Manuel wins U.S. Open of Surfing 14-year-old becomes prestigious event’s youngest champion Advertiser Staff A glimpse into the future of women’s surfing was on display yesterday at Huntington Beach, Calif. Thanks to 14-year-old Malia Manuel and 17-year-old Coco Ho, Hawai’i appears to be at the forefront. Manuel won the Women’s Honda U.S. Open of … Continue reading “14-year-old becomes prestigious event’s youngest champion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surfing-news-archive","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}