It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as the Shootout has been in the past. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
The Da Hui Backdoor Shootout out is one of the most exciting events in surfing. It’s not like any other event. Steeped in history, it’s for surfers even more so than spectators. But this year, Mother Nature wasn’t super excited to join the party.
“It’s a special event with a lot of cool history, and the opening ceremony and protocol are very special, as well,” Mason Ho told The Inertia. “It showcases a lot of the roots and the culture that the event represents, so to be here and soak it in is a blessing.”
This year was a little different than most. Kala Desoto, an 18-year-old phenom won the shortboard division after a week of bad weather only permitted for one round of the shortboard team event. Since conditions didn’t cooperate, a two-day extension was permitted. Even that, however, didn’t help all that much.
“When the swell still hadn’t filled in by the final morning of the window on Jan. 18,” wrote Kyveli Diener for The Inertia, “the club decided in agreement with the invited surfers to alter the event’s format completely by introducing the first-ever Da Hui Free Surf Expression Session.”
That was possible because of how the event is rolled out and a willingness to change plans on the fly.
“It’s good, because we have a lot of leeway in the way the contest is structured…we can ask the surfers what they want to do, and they didn’t want to surf in a competitive kind of event, so we threw out some ideas and thought out of the box” said Da Hui leader David Kawika Stant, Jr. “Sometimes they go, ‘Uncle, why don’t we just clear the water and have an expression session?”
When all was said and done, though, the event was, as it always is, a success. Maybe not wave-wise, but in every other aspect. Koa Rothman, son of Eddie who founded Da Hui, was there, and he recently uploaded a behind-the-scenes look at the event. It’s an interesting peek at the dynamics between surfers competing, some of whom have been friends their whole lives. But when you’ve got Pipeline with just a few others out, there aren’t a lot of things that are better.
