Photo: WSL
The WSL’s Qualifying Series often bears the brunt of surf lingo. “Looking like a QS out there,” is an all-too-common saying when surveying onshore dribble from the parking lot. But every once in a while, the real “QS grind” unearths conditions that would make even the most spoiled Championship Tour surfer green with envy.
Such is the case at the ongoing Nias Pro in Lagundri Bay. On June 10, the fourth day of competition, four 10s dropped throughout two men’s rounds. The following day, two women – Sierra Kerr and Willow Hardy– dropped perfect rides of their own.
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Australian Kobi Clements got the first 10 for holding onto a freight train in the Round of 64. Xavier Huxtable took half of the day’s perfect scores when the 21-year-old earned not one but two 10-point rides in his heat. The first was a conventional (but nonetheless impressive) overhead bomb; the second an absurdly late airdrop to a spitting tube. Japan’s Riaru Ito locked in backside to get yet another 10-pointer in the last heat of the June 11th bender.
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Four 10-point rides in a day sounds like a lot, but given the quality of conditions, it seemed like the judges actually showed some restraint with those numbers. We’d be remiss not to mention Joh Azuchi (19.77), Saxon Reber (19.48) Nathan Monchet (18.90), Axel Curotta (19.63), Jin Suzuki (18.60), Kyuss King (18.70) and Tully Wylie (18.90), who all bagged pocket 9s to advance through their heats in the Round of 64.
Not to be outdone, the following day Sierra Kerr dropped another near-perfect heat total with a dreamy 10-point ride and a 9.87. Both she and her dad are onto the quarterfinals, which would make for a remarkable storyline (and perhaps first ever?) should father and daughter both win the same QS.
Photo: Tim Hain/WSL
“When I saw Willow (Hardy) get her wave, I just thought to myself, ‘I want that big barrel,’” Kerr said. “I wanted to try and get the biggest barrel during my heat. When I saw that one coming, I thought I was a bit deep, then no one wanted it, and I was like, ‘I’ll go [on] this thing,’ and I’m glad I did because it was perfect. I don’t even know if I’ve been barreled in a WSL comp, and I definitely haven’t had a 10 so this is two firsts. I’m frothing.”
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