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\nPictured: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), 24, takes down the 2009 ASP World Tour Rookie of the Year Award. <\/p>\n
2009 ASP World Tour
\n2009 ASP Women\u2019s World Tour<\/p>\n
Bacalso and Ho Take ASP Rookie of Year Honors in Hawaiian Sweep<\/p>\n
\nPictured: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), 24, takes down the 2009 ASP World Tour Rookie of the Year Award. <\/p>\n
Credit: \u00a9 ASP\/ CI\/ CESTARI via GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
COOLANGATTA, Queensland\/Australia (Friday, December 18, 2009) \u2013Hawaiians Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), 24, and Coco Ho (HAW), 18, have claimed the 2009 ASP World Tour and ASP Women\u2019s World Tour Rookie of the Year Award following impressive performances amongst the world\u2019s finest surfers throughout year<\/p>\n
Bacalso, who finished ASP World No. 18, proved to be the dark horse amongst his rookie class, smashing the competition and constantly stringing together impressive results to claim the 2009 ASP Rookie of the Year award.\u201cI\u2019m super stoked to win this award,\u201d Bacalso said. \u201cMy main goal coming into this season was to finish within the Top 27, so to claim the Rookie of the Year award is a bonus and I wasn\u2019t expecting it. Freddy P (Fredrick Patacchia) was giving me a hard time throughout the year because he and Andy (Irons) won it when they were rookies and now I guess it\u2019s Dusty\u2019s (Payne) turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following a strong start to his 2009 campaign with an Equal 5th place finish at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, Bacalso\u2019s best result of the year, the Hawaiian powerhouse was able to take a relaxed approach to competition while bettering his seed throughout the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year on the World Tour was exactly what I expected,\u201d Bacalso said. \u201cIt was the most fun year ever and for me it was kind of stress free because I was never really the bubble boy. I learned a lot and it was sick to be able to check out lots of the spots on tour that I hadn\u2019t been to before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that Bacalso has clinched the Rookie of the Year title, he hopes to up his game for 2010 and has his scope set on a spot amongst the Top 16 while bettering his competitive skills and enjoying the new faces of the ASP Dream Tour for next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to finish within the Top 16,\u201d Bacalso said. \u201cI\u2019m going to take it one step at a time, but I\u2019ve realized I\u2019ve got to step it up and be on top of my ball game. The guys that finish within the Top 5 are really motivating because it seems like they\u2019re unbeatable, they\u2019re spectacular, and so I\u2019m hoping to lose a few pounds for next year and try to motivate myself to train. It should be a great year with five Hawaiians on tour and all of the new guys like the Gudangs (Gudauskas brothers). I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coco Ho, who finished ASP Women\u2019s World No. 4 this year, was the highest-rated rookie amongst the ASP Top 17 and was the only surfer amongst the rookie class to win an event this year when she claimed the Rip Curl Pro Search Portugal. The impressive victory combined with two Semifinals and two Quarterfinals berths were enough to cement the young Hawaiian at the top of her class.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the best award to win,\u201d Ho said. \u201cIt\u2019s a once in a lifetime opportunity and it\u2019s great to have won it with five really strong rookies on Tour last year. They pushed me really hard and the Rookie of the Year award means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ho, who\u2019s unexpected qualification to the 2009 ASP Women\u2019s World Tour came as a surprise to several, was cautious to set expectations entering her first year amongst the women\u2019s finest surfers, but settled into the tough competition naturally, finding herself in the running for the 2009 ASP Women\u2019s World Title entering the second-to-last event of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into my rookie year, I didn\u2019t have any expectations because I was the last seed and the last to qualify,\u201d Ho said. \u201cI kind of qualified for the World Tour accidentally and it felt great to know that entering the second-to-last event of the year that I was in contention for the Women\u2019s World Title.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawaiian natural-footer is hoping she can further establish herself as a ratings\u2019 leader on the 2010 calendar and is looking to focus primarily on ASP Women\u2019s World Tour competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking to next year, I\u2019m hoping to stay within the top five on the ratings,\u201d Ho said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that if my year starts off well that I won\u2019t have to do the \u2018QS and that I can just focus my time on the World Tour, but I\u2019m just going to see how the year plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the 2010 ASP World Tour and ASP Women\u2019s World Tour schedules and qualifiers log onto www.aspworldtour.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2009 ASP World Tour 2009 ASP Women\u2019s World Tour Bacalso and Ho Take ASP Rookie of Year Honors in Hawaiian Sweep Pictured: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), 24, takes down the 2009 ASP World Tour Rookie of the Year Award. Credit: \u00a9 ASP\/ CI\/ CESTARI via GETTY IMAGES COOLANGATTA, Queensland\/Australia (Friday, December 18, 2009) \u2013Hawaiians Kekoa Bacalso … Continue reading “Bacalso and Ho Take ASP Rookie of Year Honors in Hawaiian Sweep”<\/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":[25],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asp-surfing-news","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13814","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=13814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}