One day after a gigantic victory at Jaws, Billy Kemper was back at it on Wednesday.
Kemper won an intense four-man heat in the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach in a performance that included a 10-point ride.
“I felt like I just carried that momentum straight in (after catching) a couple of waves at Jaws that will stick with me for the rest of my life,” said Haiku, Maui’s Kemper.
Kemper was talking about Monday, when he dropped into 50-foot wave faces in the Jaws Challenge at Pe‘ahi en route to the title he captured Tuesday in that World Surf League Big Wave Tour event.
“I’m right back here with the same mentality and same goal,” he added. “Just take it heat by heat and just keep chipping away.”
At the Vans World Cup, which is the second stop in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing season-ending series and the final contest on the World Surf League’s qualifying series, Kemper and three others jumped on one last wave in the final minute of their second-round heat. But Kemper ended up on top of that fray and advanced to today’s third round, conditions permitting.
Josh Moniz, who hails from Kuliouou, had an impressive 9.83 while winning his heat and advancing.
Two other Hawaii surfers, Kainehe Hunt and Michael O’Shaughnessy, also made it through to the third round.
The next event in the Vans Triple Crown — the Billabong Pipe Masters — is Dec. 8-20, and that is also the WSL’s championship tour finale. Australia’s Joel Parkinson won the first of the three contests, the Hawaiian Pro, earlier this month.
Parkinson is among the other surfers who already made it into the World Cup third round, along with Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, the WSL’s No. 2 ranked surfer, and Hawaii surfers Sebastian Zietz, Nathan Florence, Seth Moniz, Ezekiel Lau and Tanner Hendrickson.
