The best Hawaiian surfers have fought for their pride in the Red Bull Rivals, a unique challenge between North Shore and South Shore wave riders. In 2-3 foot waves with occasional bigger sets, the boys from the South took the top honors for the second consecutive time.
To keep things fair, the event was held on the Eastside of Oahu at Sandy Beach - neutral territory for the two teams. This was the second year the contest was held, and before the Red Bull Rivals 2009 competition, no surf event had been held at Sandy Beach since the early '80s.
The 22 participating surfers had a choice to surf the Half Point or Full Point breaks for the 12-minute heats. The contest kicked off with a roshambo between team captains Jamie O’Brien for the North and Jun Jo for the South. J.O.B. won and chose TJ Barron to surf against South Shore’s Ezekiel Lau.
After each heat, the winning team’s captain had honors to pick the next heat’s match-up. As one of the most exciting heats, the eighth pitted North Shore’s Alessa Quizon against South Shore’s Kelia Moniz.
Goofy-footed shortboarder Quizon took to Half Point, while Moniz paddled her longboard to the Full Point break. Moniz pulled out all of the stops and wowed the crowd while dominating Quizon.
With 12 of the 14 heats completed, the teams were tied at six wins each and South Shore had the advantage to pick who surfed the next two heats. Ultimately, the South Shore took a narrow victory, finishing eight to six over the North Shore.
Instead of a traditional purse prize, the teams competed for each others’ surfboards used in the competition (which were then donated to the Surfrider Foundation) and, of course, the winning team earned the ultimate surfing bragging rights in front of a crowd of 3,000 locals.
North Shore
Jamie O'Brien (Captain), Kai Lenny (Ringer), Sean Moody, Kalani David, TJ Barron, Alessa Quizon, Jesse Merle Jones, Kaiea Bosgra, Anastasia Ashley, Ezra Sitt, Sage Huls
South Shore
Jun Jo (Captain), Brian Pacheco (Ringer), Ezekiel Lau, Randall Paulson, Kelia Moniz, Isaiah Moniz, Charlie Carroll, Kekoa Cazimero, Keanu Asing, Seth Moniz, Noah Mizuno