NSSA National Open Champs
Presented by Nike 6.0

NSSA
Huntington Beach Pier, California
29 June - 3 July 2010

Live Coverage  |  Results/Photos/Videos etc

Young Hawaiian shines bright Day 2 of Nationals

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 2 July, 2010 : - - Huntington Beach -- The 2010 NSSA Nationals moved one day closer to crowning this year’s champions today in peaky two-to-three foot surf at the event’s new location of South Huntington Beach Pier.  Young Hawaiian Kalani David, 12, was a standout in the Open Boy’s competition when the regular-footer detonated a near-perfect heat while advancing through to the Semifinals. Fellow Hawaiian talent Tanner Hendrickson, 18, led the way to Open Men’s Quarterfinals competition by posting the top scores of the division.

Defending Open Women’s Champion Lakey Peterson, 15, continued to flare throughout the 2010 event while earning the top scores of women’s competition before advancing to this year’s Open Women’s Final.

Kalani David went ballistic in his Open Boys heat, surfing a near-perfect bout by smashing the event’s only perfect 10 with a single maneuver, a massive 360 air. The perfect ride came shortly after the Hawaiian upstart blasted an impressive 9.65 with several committed fins-free turns and finished with a clean air-reverse to effortlessly place the field in a combination situation in what many are calling the performance of the event so far.

Hendrickson dominated his Round 2 heat, unleashing the highest single wave score of Open Men’s competition, a near perfect 9.00 out of 10 before snatching the division’s highest heat total, a 15.50 out of 20. The Maui regular-footer’s consistency continued in Round 3 when he displayed another notable performance to convincingly move on to the Quarterfinals alongside Parker Coffin.

“I’m really stoked that I made it,” Hendrickson said. “Everything is going my way. I’m just going to try and surf my best tomorrow and have a good time. I’m stoked that I made it to the final day and I want to do the best that I can. Hopefully tomorrow I can show that.”

Tanner Hendrickson : photo Hilleman

Conner Coffin, 16, who was a standout in Round 1 of Open Men’s competition yesterday, continued to flare through two more rounds today to advance to the Quarterfinals. “I’m trying to build momentum as I go,” Coffin said. “It feels good to win a heat. I’ve been having weird contests lately, but I finally have a board that I comfortable on.”

Coffin has been sticking to his game plan of picking off the wedgy rights on offer at South Huntington Beach Pier while remaining patient while searching for waves that offer the highest scoring potential. “The conditions are similar to yesterday and I kind of did the same thing as I did in the last heat,” Coffin said. “I just surfed those rights off of the pier and it’s so fun. It was a three man heat, so it was easy to get waves.”

Peterson continued to standout as the top performer of the Open Women’s competition when she amassed the second-highest heat total of the entire event, a 15.75 out of 20 to earn the right to defend her Open Women’s National title in this year’s final.

“The waves got way better this afternoon compared to this morning,” Peterson said. “I think tomorrow is going to be a good final. Hopefully the waves will still be fun. I know the waves should be a little bit smaller tomorrow, but there should still be a little bit of swell and I’m stoked to make the final.”

The standout competitor feels a little pressure to defend her title, but is trying to enjoy her amateur career at the same time. “I guess there’s a little bit of pressure,” Peterson said. “I just got a new sponsor and I want to do well for them, but realistically I’m just having fun.”

Surfline.com, official forecasters for the 2010 NSSA Nationals are expecting both the current south swell and northwest wind swell to ease while a new south-southwest swell is expected to build throughout the day to bring contestable two-to-three foot surf to the final day of competition. Winds are expected to be out of the south in the morning and then switch to a southwesterly flow by afternoon at light to moderate strength.

To watch the final day of NSSA Nationals action watch the LIVE webcast presented by Nike 6.0 via nssalive.com starting at 7am local time.

Previous reports:
# 1 : NSSA National Open Champs to webcast July 1-3
# 2 : NSSA Nationals live webcast kicking off tomorrow
# 3 : Geiselman, Coffin lead NSSA Nationals Round 1
# 4 : Coming soon  

www.nssa.org
www.nike6.com
www.nssalive.com

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