Watch: Near-Perfect Wave Score That Crowned 20-Year-Old Surfing Prodigy Winner of American WSL Event

The Wallex US Open of Surfing is complete. The Tahiti Pro, the last event before the 2023 Rip Curl Finals of the Championship Tour, will take place at Teahupo’o after the surfing world saw a lot of action in the Challenger Series. Eli Hanneman and Crosby Colapinto, the younger brother of American surfing star and previous yellow jersey owner Griffin Colapinto, battled it out in the Men’s category of the American surfing contest. After a fantastic effort in the finals, though, it was Hanneman who took home the Challenger Series event triumph.

Posts about Eli Hanneman’s victory quickly went viral throughout the world, and his accomplishment was widely lauded. However, WSL themselves recognized the wave that made him the champion of this tournament by posting it on their social media accounts.

A champ in the eyes of the surfing world

In the American WSL tournament, everyone was keeping an eye on the two up-and-coming surfers. Even though it wasn’t a Championship Tour showdown, the surfers understood the psychological difference that comes with winning on their home turf. The fierce conflict did not hold back, beginning with the first wave. Hanneman went all in, leaving no room for his opponent to earn more points. The surfer caught the wave and immediately jumped off, doing a breathtaking 360-degree aerial that stunned onlookers. However, it wasn’t the end of the surfer’s arsenal, as he immediately went for another cutback and cruised to the beach crowd with a unique celebration posture.

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The judges were clearly blown away by this maneuver and awarded the surfer a perfect 9 for this wave. In the end, Hanneman’s 17.10 points blew away Crosby Colapinto’s 9.60 points (5.67 + 3.93) by a wide margin. The Hawaiian won the Wallex US Open of Surfing, and his 9-point wave was named “Wave of the Day” on the World Surf League’s Instagram account.

After two years of competing in the WSL Challenger Series, Eli Hanneman now has a victory to his name. The surfer’s previous best result, in the 2023 GWM Sydney Surf Pro, ranks as his second-best ever.

The 2023 GWN Sydney Surf Pro

With a lot of hard surfing, the Hawaiian surfer advanced to the round of 16 in the GWM Sydney Surf Pro. The Sydney waves were set to witness some intense surfing action as he faced American surfer Cole Houshmand. However, the conditions on the Australian waves were challenging, and neither surfer scored a point until the sixth wave.

On the Australian waves, Houshmand scored a 7.60, but Hanneman could only manage a 4.50. Houshmand got a huge 8-point wave on the next wave, raising the bar for the Hawaiian surfer. Hanneman gave it his all, but the waves weren’t cooperating, as seen by his 5.17 score on the ninth wave, which allowed Houshmand to go farther in the competition. Despite his ninth-place finish, the surfer had one of his greatest WSL Challenger Series performances ever.

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