Nishii reports from California at the QS10,000 US OPEN!
"Kei Kobayashi" V2-GRAINDER
Appearing in Heat 1 of Round 3!
Of the four people in the heat, the other three were strong competitors from the WT.
Perhaps I was too excited, but I was defeated here.
This is my best result yet in QS10000, and I've earned prize money and points.
"Griffin Colapinto" Driver
In Round 3, I was in the same heat as my local senior, Kolohe.
He finished in second place and in the following round 4 he shared the same heat as Yago Dora.
We rounded up in second place and moved on to Round 5, where it was man-on-man!
The waves were very few and small so I was struggling to get a good score.
When I caught a good wave, the flow was amazing and I got a good score.
"Yago Dora" POCKET ROCKET
Round 3 was the same heat as "Kay",
He landed a solid frontside air reverse to take first place.
However, in the following round 4, in the same heat as Griffin,
He was eliminated in third place due to questionable low score judgement. He himself seemed dissatisfied with the score.
After the heat, he held up his board as if he had won and showed off his victory.
"Kolohe Andino" DRIVER
In round 3, he was in the same heat as Griffin, a junior LOST team.
He landed a frontside air reverse and a backside three-turn to finish in first place.
Although they advanced to Round 4 in second place, their energy to win this tournament was palpable.
He was surfing in a cool Californian style. If the judges were to grade each trick more precisely, I think Kolohe would definitely be the best. He was the only surfer out of the many competitors competing without a leash.
Others include Brazil's Michael Rodrigues,
Evan Geiselman, who is said to be the best in the world at surfing small waves, has moved up to Round 3.
I expect their next results will be out by the time this blog is published!
