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HEDGE POWERS WAY TO PIPING HOT WIN


	HEDGE POWERS WAY TO PIPING HOT WIN

By Mark Humphrey

Nathan Hedge has won the inaugural ASP 1 Star rated Piping Hot Surfwear Surf Fest final at Victoria’s Bells Beach powering home in the solid conditions to narrowly beat Nicholas Squiers. It was a sweet win for the powerfully built Hedge who immediately thanked the supporters who had stuck with him through the tough times.

Nathan Hedge cracks one off the lipNicholas Squiers was equally impressive today

With conditions reasonable at Bells Beach this morning the call was made to step into the Piping Hot program which would see all four finals contested after some preliminaries had been run.

The women’s final was first up with Laura Macaulay taking on Stephanie Single in what proved to be a cracker of a final. Macaulay was first to post a score with a throw away 1.1 wave. Single in white set up the final early with consecutive point scoring waves posting a 3.5 followed by a 4.5 score to comfortably lead the women’s final after 10 minutes. Macualay then posted a 4.4 wave with Single also adding to her count. At the halfway mark of the women’s final Laura Macaulay trailed Stephanie Single by a moderate 5.56 total and needed to post a wave score better than 5.56 to inherit the lead. With conditions inconsistent wave selection proved to be critical and was the difference between winning and losing. With 12 minutes left to run Macaulay picked up a neat little roller that she followed into the shore-break scoring an 8.5 which elevated her into 1^st position. With scores of 8.5 and 4.5 (total of 13) Macaulay led Single who had a combined total of 12.50 with a pair of 6.25 waves. With 5 minutes to go in the final Macaulay had priority giving her the advantage over Single. The priority decision meant that Single could not take the same wave as Macaulay and had to wait until Macaulay had taken her wave or take a left-over wave that Macaulay didn’t want. With less than 5 minutes to run this is exactly what happened. Single took off on a wave that Macaulay had elected to leave. The wave had some depth about it and just kept its face allowing Single to work the wave and in doing so post a final high score of 9.0 which catapulted her into the lead. Macaulay must have been wondering why she let that one through but hats off to Single who extracted everything from the wave with classic lay back round-houses combined with solid bottom turns. Macaulay needed a 6.76 to regain the lead but unfortunately for Macaulay the wave she gave up was the last decent wave of the final with Stephanie Single crowned the Women’s champ for 2014.Laura MacaulayStephanie Single

The men’s final followed immediately with Hedge the overwhelming favourite to take out the win. Hedge was quick to post a score which had been his trait all tournament. He posted a 6.0 wave and quickly followed up with a 7.0 wave to blow Squiers out of the water. Squiers had settled into a rhythm after the Hedge onslaught and posted a 6.75 followed by a mediocre 4.25 to trail Hedge by 2.0 after 11 minutes. Hedge picked up a solid wave and surfed it aggressively as he does to record a high score of 9.0 which coupled to his next best of 7.0 virtually sealed the final for him. With 9 minutes to go Squiers needed a 9.25 wave but could only manage a 5.4 reducing the gap marginally. Squiers not done with yet pulled out an 8.0 point scoring wave to reduce the deficit to just 1.25 with 7 minutes left in the final. A 6.9 wave by Hedge didn’t increase his lead and with 2 minutes left to run Squiers picked up a wave that had potential. With a hard bottom turn followed by a super aggressive snap off the lip Squiers was still in the hunt. Unfortunately for Squiers the wave petered out handing Hedge a well-deserved win. In his victory speech Hedge said that he hadn’t heard of Squiers before the tournament but was super impressed with his surfing throughout the competition. He is hoping 2014 will be a big year for him saying he was going to have a red hot go at making the tour once again. For Squiers this week has been one for the memory banks with wins over some fancied surfers on the way to being runner-up.HedgeSquiers

The Pro Junior Women’s final was the next final to be run between Grace Styman-Lane and Keely Andrew. Both girls had an outstanding week competing in both the Open Women’s as well as the Pro Junior Women’s events. Based on form over the previous days Andrew looked the one to beat as she was capable of posting individual high wave scores. In her semi-final Andrew posted an event high wave score of 9.9 to reach the final and showed what she was capable off. On the other hand Grace Styman-Lane had been so consistent throughout her heats posting combination scores that would have her winning her heats. Although she didn’t have the flair like Andrew there was no doubt that Andrew would not win the final with just one massive wave score. Each of the girls had posted early wave scores that would eventually be replace with higher scores. With 17 minutes to run Andrew posted a 6.0 wave to go with her 4.0 leaving Styman-Lane an 8.0 wave to take the lead. Styman-Lane got busy and reduced the gap with a 1.4 and then a 4.0 wave to trail by 6 with 9 minutes to run. Styman-Lane then had a throw-away wave and followed that up with a 6.75 to take over the lead with 4 minutes 40 left to run in the final. Keely Andrew needed a 4.75 or better to take back the lead with 4 minutes left in the final. Andrew picked up a nice wave and completed a couple of manoeuvres before the wave petered out. A score of 4.35 wasn’t enough to take the lead with barely 3 minutes left in the final. Immediately Andrew re-gathered herself and jumped straight into the next wave in the bowl electing not to paddle out to the back with precious little time left in the final. Andrew worked the wave and completed some aggressive manoeuvres on a wave which was holding its face until she slipped and fell off the front of the wave. Although it could have been disastrous for Andrew she had already done enough prior to falling and recorded a wave score of 5.5 to regain the lead with less than 2 minutes to run. Andrew was able to get priority as well with Styman-Lane having a throw-away wave. The siren sounded with Keely Andrew winning a fantastic final by just 0.75 from Grace Styman-Lane. Well done to both girls who managed to make the final ahead of some very talented field.Keely AndrewGrace Styman-Lane

The Pro Junior Men’s final was the last final to be run for the Piping Hot Surf Fest and had Soli Bailey up against Elliot Paerata-Reid after both surfers displayed remarkable skills on the way to the final. Like the Junior Women, the Junior Men’s section was over flowing with talented surfers who had provided white hot surfing over the week. Paerata-Reid got off to a good start and had posted 3.75 and 5.75 wave scores before Bailey had caught a wave. With 5 gone Bailey got his first wave which netted a 2.0 only. He followed it up with a more respectable 6.75 wave but still needed a 2.75 or better wave to take the lead. Paerata-Reid increased his lead with a 5.35 wave replacing the earlier 3.75 wave leaving Bailey with the task of scoring a 4.35 or better wave with 16 minutes left to run in the final. Bailey sat patiently and with just over six minutes to run picked up a 6.75 wave to move into the lead. Paerata-Reid now required a 7.75 or better to regain the lead with time running out. Paerata-Reid picked up a wave that looked to have form but unfortunately for Paerata-Reid the wave tapered away giving him a throw away score. With 2 minutes to go all looked lost for Paerata-Reid who was stranded in the bowl or so it seemed. Paerata-Reid got on his bike and was heading out the back in no time. For Paerata-Reid his paddling was so strong and definitely a standout for him all tournament. With Bailey having priority with less than 2 minutes to run he elected to cover off Paerata-Reid and paddled stroke for stroke with Paerata-Reid until the siren blew. Smart thinking by Bailey demonstrating the competition experience he has picked up over the short journey.Soli Bailey was the standout junior.Kiwi Elliot Paerata-Reid has a big future ahead of him.

With the sound of the siren come the end of what was a most successful event contested at both the Jan Juc and Bells Beach precincts over the past 5 days.