"Tomson Beats Out His Host in Hang Ten," by Ken Kobayoshi, Honolulu Advertiser, Feb 19, 1975

Visiting South African surfer Shaun Tomson edged out his host yesterday to win the $9,800 American Professional Surfing Contest at Sunset Beach.

The young 19-year-old Tomson. who is staying at Jeff Hakman's Sunset Beach home, took top prize of $5,000 from the two-day meet, the third big-money, big-wave meet of the season. Hakman made a stunning comeback to grab second place among the 32 pros after a miserable start on Monday.

Goofyfooter Gerry Lopez was third, followed by Larry Bertlemann. Reno Abelllra and Rory Russell, all from Hawaii.

Actually, Tomson's performance wasn't much compared to his remarkable first-day showing which had put him far into the lead going into yesterday's finish. He only caught four waves and placed fifth in his heat, but his 15 rides and 879 points Monday were enough to give him the edge over Hakman, 1,272 to 1,172

"I didn't surf too well today," admitted Tomson, who seemed overly cautious. He waited for waves far outside the other contestants, hoping for the high-point rides. Fortunately for him. he did manage to catch two 13-foot waves for 100-point scores, enough to put him out of reach.

Although Tomson had done well elsewhere—he's the South African pro champion and winner of the Gunston 500—he had never done well in Hawaii pro meets. But this year he practiced at Sunset for two months (it was two or three weeks in past visits), and surfing with top pros like Hakman paid off. "It helped me combine Hawaii's graceful big-wave style with South African's jamming style," he said.

Hakman, who won the Hang Ten twice before but seemed out of the running going into yesterday, pulled off eight solid rides to jump into the early lead. On Monday, he had only four rides, almost the reverse of Tomson's good-then-bad performance.

Yesterday's waves weren’t quite as big as they had been on the first day, but neither was the offshore wind as strong. There were fewer wipeouts and more spectacular tuberiding, especially by Australians Ian Cairns and Mike Peterson. Cairns won $100 for the longest tuberide (2.8 seconds), and Peterson won applause from the 1,000 or so spectators with a nifty double-tube performance in the day's last heat, which also turned out to be the most dramatic.

Three surfers in the heat—Tomson, Lopez and Rory Russell—all had good shots at the championship. Lopez and Russell tore up waves on the inside to finish first and second, respectively, in the heat, but their scores were not enough to overtake Hakman, who had finished earlier. Tomson got his two rides on the two biggest sets of the day and rode them past his host.

Cairns also earned $500 for the highest point-scoring ride, 190 points.

"The 1975 Hang Ten American Professional Surfing Championships," by Roy Crump, SURFER Magazine, July 1975

The selection of surfers who get invitations to the pro meets should be more of an open affair. The preponderance of Hawaiians in the North Shore meets doesn’t seem warranted anymore, with the increasingly powerful Australian and South African showings of this and last winter. Out of 32 entrants in the Hang Ten, 15 were Hawaiian residents and, in my opinion, only four of those riders stood out, whereas all three of the South Africans and the five Australians turned in very hot performances.

Some of the Hawaiian entries have had eight or ten chances in the pro meets and never won a title. Perhaps it is time to retire some of these or move them to the alternate lists. This is quite a turnabout from my article last fall, but I think that some changes in the pro lineup would lead to hotter surfing and a fairer representation of what’s happening in the surfing world now. Gavin Rudolph, Paul Neilson, Ian Cairns, and Shaun Tomson, along with a plethora of their countrymen, are now capable of upsetting things and taking a title.

One problem is the lack of knowledge about who is going to be here in Hawaii for the various contests. Many Hawaiian competitiors live within walking distance of Sunset and Pipeline, whereas the South Africans are a $2,000 plane ride away. Perhaps what is needed is some empty slots to be filled two or three weeks before the meet so that the latest hot arrivals can be given a chance to compete. These choices should be made by an open-minded and somehow-sanctioned committee of people who are aware of the hottest surfers in the world, and objective in their selections.

The Hang Ten American Professional Surf Contest was an eye opener for me. It gave the South Africans and Australians their final chance of the 1974-75 season to participate in a major pro meet. And participate they did. In fact, their surfing was so outstanding that it brings up some serious thinking about the pro circuit lineups.

Ian Cairns, Shaun Tomson, and Michael Peterson were so hot and so consistent that they opened up a new era of Sunset wave riding. The lines they are drawing are much sharper angled, the tube rides more radical, and the takeoffs steeper and later. Also ripping Sunset were South Africans Jonathan Paarman, Michael Tomson, (Shaun’s cousin), and Australians Rabbit Bartholomew, Paul Neilsen and, earlier in the season, the very hot Mark Richards.

The Hang Ten scoring format adds up all the individual points gained in two sessions of surfing, and it was Shaun’s opening-day performance that insured his victory. Riding windy 10-15 foot surf, he ripped with a very fluid, fast style. Cairns got the most spectacular wave: he went into a 10-foot cylinder, and three seconds later came out. Peterson got a double tube, not by luck but by precision position and maneuvering.

Most of the surfers continued to approve of the points-per-maneuver system that let them know for sure what was expected of them in the water. But controversy was not lacking concerning the results of the Hang Ten’s “objective” scoring. One complaint concerned head judge George Downing’s wave-size calls. According to Downing (a Sunset surfer for 25 or 30 years), only two waves were successfully ridden that were over 12 feet during the two-day event. Consequently, moderate-sized wave calls were made on waves that many felt had a range of 8- to 14-feet, which should have opened up more scoring possibilities. Since all waves ridden were counted (versus best three or five waves in the tradition subjective judging system), some complained of the high scores of relatively mediocre performers chose to simply ride a lot of waves to rack up points.

Another area for improvement was the lack of a strict interference rule, which often acts as a deterrent even jf it is hard to enforce. With no emphasis on the issue, many a wave was ridden by more than one rider, usually to someone’s disadvantage.

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