High Fives Competes at 2022 Hawai’i Adaptive Surfing Championship

Honolulu,HI

With almost 100 athletes representing 17 different countries at the first stop of the inaugural Adaptive Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, High Five Athletes were stoked to head out to Hawaii, get into some warm water, and compete.

High Fives brought a crew of experienced surfers to represent us in the contest. Roy Tuscany, Alana Nichols, Tommy Counihan, Tyler Turner, Jeff Andrews, Trevor Kennison, Jordan Koeninger, Josh Dueck, Colin Cook, Victoria Feige, Evan Strong, and Nathan Smids would be doing their best in competition while representing the shield.

Many of these Athletes hadn’t seen each other in a few years, but you would never be able to tell. The group immediately clicked just like they had never missed a beat. Stories were told, and hugs were exchanged as everyone got reacquainted. The community was strong at this event. Many of the Athletes were going to be competing against each other in the contest but for now, it was all love!

Everyone arrived a few days early in order to get some practice days at the contest event, this gave everyone time to dial in their surf setups and feel the warm Hawaiian weather before it was time to compete. The waves were nice the first few days and everyone was making the most out of their practice time.

Screen Shot 2022-06-30 at 9.01.42 AM
IMG_7315

Photo Credit: Tommy Pierucki

Unfortunately, no one told the ocean that there was going to be a contest on the waves she provided. The calm and flat waters would be much better for a leisurely paddle than hosting the best adaptive surfers in the world.

That is surfing though, you are never guaranteed the waves. With the sets few and far between, each wave becomes more important and the paddle battles even fierce.

Roy Tuscany, Alana Nichols, Victoria Feige, Colin Cook, Ethan Kairer, and Tommy Counihan were able to ride some nice waves in their heats collecting their tickets to compete in the finals for their chance to stand on top of the podium. The rest of the High Five Athletes surfed their hearts out, but unfortunately just didn’t get the waves to punch their tickets.

An amazing show of surfing in the final saw fantastic finishes for all High Five Athletes. Victoria Feige grabbed a first in the Any Knee Kneeling category and a second in the Wave Ski category. Colin Cook secured second place in his respective category, Alana Nichols grabbed a third-place and Ethan Kairer and Roy Tuscany rounded out the podium with a third and fourth-place finish in the Men’s Waveski category!

Although the waves didn’t cooperate like we may have hoped, everyone still had an incredible time and if they weren’t in the final they were on the beach cheering everyone else on. We are incredibly proud of everyone who competed and cannot wait to see you all out there next year!

Screen Shot 2022-06-29 at 3.29.36 PM