David Hubbard has claimed the 2011 Bubbakoo’s Jenks Pro, in New Jersey, and took home the national USBA title.
Jeff Hubbard, his brother and seven times USBA national title holder, was not about to hand it to his younger brother and had flown in the day before from Portugal to protect not only his national title but his Jenks Pro 2010 title.
The heavily Hawaiian field of pro’s were greeted with a mix of swells with left over’s from hurricane Irene and a new groomed swell from Tropical Storm Jose which was camped out just off of Bermuda.
The Jenks Casino Pier surprised the riders and crowd with 3-5 foot groomed lefts and rights with heats starting at 8am.
With Jeff Hubbard leading the tour at the start of the Jenks Pro it seemed an uphill battle for Jacob Romero and David Hubbard his brother as Jeff’s momentum on the world tour seemed to carry over to the Jenks Pro (Jeff currently leading the IBA World Tour).
Jeff Hubbard opened up the quarters strong with a set wave spin to air roll combo. However, Kahelili Labatte turned up the heat with a dark horse performance using clean back flips to take out Hubbard, the seasoned vet.
Jacob Romero eased through his quarter final as did David Hubbard and with Jeff out of the event it was David and Jacob with the two highest chances for the USBA 2011 Title.
However, Trevor Kam had been quietly building a campaign heat by heat and realized that if he won the Jenks Pro and if David and Jacob placed anywhere but first or second in the event, he could still win the title.
This meant the semi finals were to be treated as finals and every second was more pressure filled than the next. Kahelili , David, Jacob and Trevor all progressed making it an all Hawaiian final at the New Jersey Shore.
Seaside Casino Pier held into the afternoon with light winds and peaking conditions. David Hubbard, aka DHUBB, went to work off the bat and even though all the riders put in valiant efforts, Dave’s lowest score was marginally higher than even the second place rider’s best score.
DHUBB seemed to leaving nothing to chance and bettered his chances every wave he caught with three separate amazing combos using the criteria of outside maneuver to inside maneuver to really please the judges.
360’s to back flips were his weapons of choice and the competition was left deflated, with David to be chaired up by brother Jeff and fellow Kauaian ripper David Phillips.
When David finally landed in front of the cameras for an interview, he knew he had made the history books to be the only one to ever take out his own brother in seven years.
DHUBB sealed his 4th national drop knee title placing second in the Bubbakoo’s Drop Knee division. Dan Worley narrowly beat DHUBB making The Bubbakoo’s Jenks Pro his second Drop Knee win in 7 years entering the event.
Brian Stoehr was happy with his result, taking second in the USBA National tour and third at the Bubbakoo’s Jenks Pro with David Phillips rounding out the Jenks Pro final.