“Ned is really devastated,” this is what Zoe said on the phone when she heard that Ned wasn’t going to compete.
I’m sure Ned was unhappy with my safety decision—he was probably devastated. But the waves were looking on the bigger side, and we had never trained at El Porto before. My call was made purely to ensure our safety and avoid a bad wipeout, which could cost a surfer confidence moving forward.

I decided with Zoe that I would check the waves half an hour before Ned’s heat at 2:00 PM. At 1:30 PM, I called Zoe and said the waves looked even worse than I had predicted, and I didn’t feel this would go well for safety. My decision was: “If we surf, we’re only going to catch white water.”
Zoe was completely okay with the decision, and so we went into the heat—Micro Grom Assist at 2:00 PM.

Once out there, I immediately noticed that the other surfers and their guides were going into the lineup. I thought to myself, “This is a bit risky,” but I also felt the power of the waves was controllable. I decided to try paddling with Ned to the lineup, too.

The heat was quick—only 15 minutes. I sent Ned on three waves, and we placed 2nd, making it into the finals!

The Finals: 4:00 PM

The conditions looked even worse. “Haha, there’s no turning back,” I said to myself.

We entered the heat with confidence. Safety remained the priority, but a final heat always gives you that adrenaline to win. You’re searching for the right waves, hoping to score well.

Ned took off on his first wave and earned the second-best score of the heat! We only needed one more wave to finalize the score, but… it didn’t happen. The ocean went flat all the way until the final 2 minutes before the buzzer.

“Don’t worry,” I said to Ned. “Your wave is on the way…” (Obviously, I didn’t know for sure, but I was totally in hopeful mode.)

Then one wave came—“OMG, this is the wave!” I told Ned.

It wasn’t an easy wave to catch. We both needed to paddle hard, pushing everything we had into it. One final push… and he got it! Ned rode the wave successfully and…

Won 1st Place in the contest! 🎉

P.S. Stay tuned for our next story—about how Ned’s mother, Zoe, filmed that last wave and showed the judges, who had mistakenly scored it for someone else.