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Eweleiula Wong and Luka Team Win Sunset Pro

Originally posted on SURFER | By Chris Dodds | Last updated Nov 5, 2024 12:19 PM ET

Oahu’s North Shore was going off this past weekend with a season opening swell that brought Pipeline to life and provided iconic conditions for The Hawaiian Islands Sunset Pro, a men’s and women’s Qualifying Series (QS) 1000. On Monday, Eweleiula Wong (HAW) and Luke Tema (HAW) clinched 1st place finishes in pumping six-to-eight foot surf amidst stacked heavily fields in both the men’s and women’s events.

After an incredible showing on Day 2, Wong started off finals day strong and faced fierce competition all day–including Nora Liotta, Kiara Goold, Moana Jones Wong, and Keala Tomoda-Bannert. "I'm super stoked to win my first QS. I haven't made it to a Final in a really long time so I'm super stoked," said Wong. "I hardly ever surf Sunset and usually just stick to Haleiwa but I'm stoked to have won in pretty solid Sunset and I'll probably surf here a bit more now. I definitely do as well as I wanted to on the Challenger Series so these QS events at home are really nice and build some confidence and hopefully requalify for the Challenger Series next year."

On the men’s side of things, Luke Tema also brought home his first-ever QS win while up against his Hawaiian peers like Mason Ho, Billy Kemper, Torrey Meister, Shion Crawford, as well as Tahitian charger Eimeo Czermak. “There were so many good guys in the field and it was hard. I had a lot of close heats but I'm stoked to come out on top,” said Tema. “Luke [Swanson] and Shion [Crawford] and Torrey [Meister], they all push me and I've been surfing with Luke and Shion forever so it was so cool to share a Final with them. I thought it was done when I got the worst of the first exchange but then that eight came in at the end. I'll just go into Haleiwa and try to get a win but I'm mainly just so stoked to win this one."

From any vantage point along the Kamehameha Highway it was clear to see that the North Shore was alive but it’s hard to overstate just how tough the competition was at Sunset Beach. Both runner ups, Shion Crawford and Keala Tomoda-Bannert, were on fire throughout the day and looked hard to beat as they made the final heat for their second year in a row. Crawford was on a roll after winning a superheat in the Semifinals against Kemper, Cody Young, and Luke Swanson but, in the end, he fell just short of the win.

“I wanted to go back-to-back and it feels good to almost do that but I’m stoked to go into Haleiwa and just wanting to do my surfing,” said Crawford. “I’m definitely excited to get back there and hopefully it’ll be firing and hopefully take a win there. It’ll be really fun just to be in my routine and surfing at my home break.”

Tomoda-Bannert set the bar high on Finals Day in her Semifinal bout after matching the day’s best single-wave score of a 9.00 and looked impressive throughout the event. “It feels really nice to be in a Final again after it was kind of a tough year. Getting second gives me a lot of confidence to go into next week at the Super Girl. It’s exciting to get some good results and the women are doing really well so I have to keep the rhythm going but I’m not putting a lot of pressure on myself to requalify for the Challenger Series. I’ll get to go home and reset which is what I love to do between contests and feel like my confidence is there so I’m happy.”

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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