The ASP North America Pro Junior Series acts as a qualifier for the ASP World Junior Championships, with the series’ top three finishers at year’s end earning a berth onto the coveted event held in Narrabeen, Australia in an attempt to claim the title of ASP World Junior Champion.
Meola earned his perfect score with only one maneuver. The high-flying Hawaiian punted a critical air reverse on a Newport Beach wedge to earn the score and tacked the amazing performance onto his previous high scoring ride to claim the top heat total of the day as well, a near perfect 18.25 out of 20.
“Lately, I’ve just been trying to go big,” Meola said. “I think it’s boring to see a bunch of small turns, so I try and do what I like to watch.”
The variety of surf available to the Maui native allows him to prepare for anything the ocean offers him and his ability to capitalize on today’s fast beachbreak conditions paid off.
“I live on Maui and there are so many different types of waves,” Meola said. “I go out to Hana and there are beachbreaks over there and where I live is mostly reefbreak. There is a ton of different terrain to surf, so I’m kind of used to it.”
Meola is also hoping that a good showing here at the Arnette All Day Antics Pro Junior will help his cause towards qualification for the ASP World Junior Championships. Now that Hawaiian surfers earn points towards qualification for the prestigious event while competing in mainland America, the ASP Grade-3 status of the Arnette Pro Junior will play an equally significant role in the Hawaiian’s qualification hopes as mainland American competitors.
“I’m super psyched, because in the past we have only had about two contests,” Meola said. “That made it really hard to qualify for worlds, which was really frustrating. Now that we can earn points towards our Hawaii rating over here, it’s so sick.”
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