Keala Kennelly Win’s Women’s Pipeline Pro Surfing Contest Sponsored by Surf N Sea
Surfing’s Keala Kennelly, 36, drew upon every ounce of her Pipeline and competitive experience today to win the Surf N Sea Pipeline Women’s Pro, presented by Brazilian Show Room. A seasoned professional and big wave specialist who has been ranked as high as #2 in the world, Kennelly was unstoppable in waves that ranged from clean 4- to 6-foot barrels in the morning, to hefty double-overhead, wind-blown beach break conditions in the final. The Surf N Sea Pipeline Women’s Pro is a QS1,000 event sanctioned by the World Surf League, and is run in conjunction with the Pipe Pro Junior Men’s event.Runner-up to Kennelly was North Shore’s rising star Honolua Blomfield (Haleiwa); third place was former touring professional Melanie Bartels (Waianae); fourth was Moana Jones (Haleiwa) – the youngest of the finalists at just 15 years of age who was impressive in the solid surf on hand.
From the outset of the 35-minute final, Kennelly took a totally different approach to the other finalists, heading further west towards gnarly waves at Off-The-Wall. It was there that she scored some of the biggest rides of the day, opting for high-risk vertical turns and critical close-out maneuvers that shot her to an early […]