USA’s Andino advances with highest-scoring move
CHIBA, Japan – Surfing got rad at the Olympics on Monday.
On a windy day with sizable waves, American Kolohe Andino pulled off the highest-scoring maneuver yet during the sport’s Olympic debut. He sprung off the lip of a wave, grabbed his surfboard with his front hand, landed on the board’s tail and reversed the board as he finished out the ride.
Slob frontside air reverse. That’s what the move is called, and it earned Andino 8.5 points and propelled him to victory over fellow American John John Florence.
Andino, 27, also dropped some surfing lingo while describing the 30-minute heat that pitted him against Florence, a two-time world champion.
“Just really rad and one for the history books,” he said, using rad once more while leaving an interview session with reporters.
The slob frontside air reverse came on Andino’s first wave, just 30 seconds into the 30-minute heat, and Andino celebrated with a throat-slashing gesture.
“It was like cutting the snake off the head in the first 10 seconds,” said Andino, a native of San Clemente, California. “I was just overwhelmed with emotions and that’s what I ended up doing.”
Florence said he didn’t see the maneuver or the throat slash. He was looking for waves to ride.
“I just heard the score come out,” said Florence, 28, a native of Hawaii. “And so I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what did he do?’
“It’s all about the challenge it makes. So you’re in the heat and you’re sitting there and like, ‘OK, I’ve got to do something big.’ ”
Both Americans have been rehabilitating from injuries, with Andino having had surgery for an ankle he injured in March and Florence having had surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee about 10 weeks before the Tokyo Games began. They still managed to impress. After a lackluster opening day for surfing Sunday, the swell on Monday produced choppy surf and some waves that were 6 feet high at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, about 40 miles outside of Tokyo.
The Americans put on a show – rad, you might say – before Andino prevailed 14.83 to 11.60 and earned a spot in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
“I think John and I both out there, our best surfing is aerial surfing,” he said. “It was going to be an air show no matter what.”
Surfing finals condensed thanks to typhoon forecast
The first-ever Olympic surfing competition has faced challenges from Mother Nature throughout the qualifying rounds, and the finals are now being condensed due to volatile weather and surf conditions.
Tokyo organizers made the decision to run both the men’s and women’s finals back to back on Tuesday morning rather than running one final Tuesday and one Wednesday,
So far, waves have been few and far between for the Olympians competing in Tsurigasaki, but an impending typhoon is likely to provide better surf conditions on Tuesday.
According to Kurt Korte, the official forecaster for the Olympic surfing competition, the storm is expected to stir up waves up to 7 feet high, but high wind speeds could lead to overly choppy waters.
The surf is expected to die down by Wednesday in Japan, so the surfing competition is taking advantage of the small but promising window to give athletes a competitive final.