By Lincoln Feast
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Hawaii's Seth Moniz won his first world championship tour event title with a masterful display of tube-riding at the Tahiti Pro on Thursday, while Canadian teenager Erin Brooks fought back to beat Israel's Anat Lelior in the women's contest.
Moniz had been a standout throughout the contest at Teahupo'o, which hosted the 2024 Paris Olympics surfing event and is considered one of the world's most perfect waves.
While the size was down from the monster conditions earlier
in the week, when veteran Kelly Slater dominated, steep drops and deep tubes were still on tap.
Halfway through the final against Griffin Colapinto of California, Moniz charged head-down into a gaping cavern on his backhand, squeezing out at the last second and riding into a screaming, splashing crowd of spectators watching from the channel.
The 9.07 score and an earlier excellent wave looked to be enough for the win as Colapinto tried to better his pair of 7-point rides.
But Moniz had more to come as the finishing hooter sounded, snaring a near replica deep barrel for a 9.10 and a massive two-wave total of 18.17 out of a possible 20.
"This whole week has been surreal. I've had this crazy momentum every time, just in perfect sync with the ocean," the 28-year-old Hawaiian said after his win.
"Surfing is such a hard sport, and only one guy wins every time. I put so much work into this and it finally paid off."
Lelior was something of a surprise finalist in the women's event, threading multiple deep barrels and emerging into the channel shrouded in blasts of spray as she made her way through the field.
The 26-year-old world tour rookie from Tel Aviv grew up surfing the small soft waves of the Mediterranean Sea but had competitive success as a youngster and qualified for the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.
Her top two waves in the final were both in the 8-point range for a total of 16.33 inside the first half of the heat.
But Brooks, who won a world championship tour event in Fiji's hollow waves as a wildcard in 2024, fought her way back into the contest with an 8.27 out of 10 of her own.
With the clock counting down, the 19-year-old Texas-born Brooks locked into the best wave of the final, weaving through the tube for an 8.93 and a two-wave total of 17.20.
"The season has been really hard and I've lost out on every second round, every event. So to have a win gives me so much more confidence because I was almost doubting myself," Brooks said.
"The girls have gotten so much better and I was really bummed on my results. But I'm happy with this one."
The world tour next heads to Fiji, another powerful tropical left-hand reef break. World champions will be crowned at Pipeline in Hawaii in December.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
