For well over twenty years now, Honolua Surf Company has had the honor of hosting the "Legends of the Bay" surf contest at Honolua Bay on the westerly side of Maui with The Hawaii. Honolua has held a long standing reputation for being one of the worlds best waves. This contest has been an incredible opportunity for Maui's local surfers, to surf in a heat at Honolua Bay with only a few other surfers in the water. This gives all of the competitors a chance to showcase their surfing skills with out having to negotiate picking off a wave with the usually busy line up on any given day that Honolua Bay has waves rolling through.
The contest takes a lot of coordinated efforts and kokua starting weeks before the event and without the help of our community sponsors along with the Hawaii Surfing Association organization, this contest would not be what it is today. The two day event is the closing surf contest of the season for the HSA Maui division and it was certainly an awesome way to end the season! We are so grateful that The Bay greeted us with amazing waves on both days of surfing competition.

In the midst of another incredible Hawaiian winter surf season, there has been no shortage of big surf rolling into our shorelines, so it was only a matter of time before our annual "Legends of the Bay" event scored amazing waves for the contest. With the trade winds blowing strongly, the sun shinning bright and the waves looking absolutely perfect, the two day event was given the green light during the weekend of March 9th and 10th.
The contest kicked off Saturday morning with an 2' to 3' increasing northwest swell that started filling in during the early morning heats and then continued to build through mid-day with the waves pumping in the 4' to 6' range and perfectly groomed by strong trade winds. The swell was really consistent, allowing for ample scoring opportunities for all of the competitors in perfect conditions!

The Open Men's division contestants were all shredding it up, with tons of great barrel rides, stylish turns and progressive maneuvers! Tanner Hendrickson was able to find his rhythm early in the day, getting a lot of epic rides throughout the day, applying power and flow with his surfing that ended up being unmatched by anyone else through out the day! The level of surfing was really high as each competitor hoped to head home being crowned the 2019 "Legends of the Bay" champion. However at the end of the day one, out of a field of 72 competitors, Tanner was able to carry his momentum all the way into the final and ended up taking the overall win in the Open Men's Division!

During day one there was break in the contest around noon, for a 30 minute expression session held for some of the long time surfing "Legends" of Honolua Bay. Honolua holds a deep surfing history, rooted with many surfing talents whose surfboards have carved up the perfectly groomed walls of Honolua Bay for many decades. So it was nice to watch some of Honolua Bays all time best surfers come together for a expression session in a uncrowded line up. During their heat, the waves seemed like they wanted to celebrate having so many long time friends all surfing together in the lineup, that the waves pumped during their entire heat, allowing them all to put on an incredible show of their timeless styles while all riding perfect waves at Honolua Bay together.

When day two came rolling around the waves lined up again, in the 3-5ft range with just a bit more north direction in the swell. The waves were super fun and consistent which allowed for some great tube rides and incredible maneuvers, allowing for all of the other divisions surfing talents to explode on the empty peeling walls of Honolua. Maui's up and coming surfing talents put on a incredibly smooth display of surfing. In the boys divisions it was names like Dylan Sloan, Matteus Santos, Raphael Castro and Tyty Kirby, that ended up taking first place in their respected divisions.

In the women's divisions, it came down to Abigail Balmus and Sierra Larsen, taking the overall wins in their divisions! The Open Long board division saw Zane Schweitzer connect a long ride all the way through the "Cave" section with multiple tricks and great foot work to end up taking the overall win! A honorable mention was that Lara Claydon was the only women who made it into the Open Long board final and was able to hold her own while competing against some of Maui's best surfing talents!

All in all it was a epic couple days of competition at Honolua Bay for the competitors and spectators alike! With everyone being able to enjoy a day at Honolua Bay in all of its natural beauty! A big "thank you" to the Maui local surfing community at Honolua Bay, for allowing us run this event during a couple of great days of surf, without their support this event would not be possible.

2019 Legends of the Bay Final Results