After three consecutive days of voodoo and surf sacrifices, the long awaited swell has arrived at Kangaroo Island. Kinda. It was waist high, and by the time the finals limped into action, the onshore wind had torn the little running lefts to shit.

Nevertheless, with 6-Star points on the line, the quarterfinals were sent out to the sand bank at the gorgeous Vivonne Bay in South Australia.

The lone American left in the draw was none other than Kolohe Andino. With this win replacing his lowest result, his spot on next year's tour is all but locked. This is Kolohe's 5th win this season, tying Gabe Medina for wins on the year (though Gabe won a prime and 2 WCT events).

Kolohe now sits at 24 in the world rankings, comfortably within the top 32 roster for next year.

Qualification is a slippery slope. The Hawaiian season is just starting, and empirical evidence would suggest that crazy things can go down, and let us not forget that the ASP is capable of making mistakes when it comes to simple math, so who knows.

This event marks the first ever at Kangaroo Island, a beautiful pile of rocks just off the coast of Adelaide, and ironically the strongest national showing was from another island off the coast of Australia: New Zealand. Kiwis RIchard Christie, Billy Stairmand, and Jay Quinn all charged into the quarters, unfortunately taking each other out in rapid succession, leaving Quinn in the final to face Andino.

Kolohe was THE standout of the entire event, and he smashed the final as well. Good on ya mate!

Final
Kolohe Andino (USA) 15.33 def. Jay Quinn (NZL) 13.64

Semifinals
SF1: Kolohe Andino (USA) 17.17 def. Mitch Crews (AUS) 15.27
SF2: Jay Quinn (NZL) 11.83 def. Richard Christie (NZL) 8.50

Quarterfinals
QF1: Kolohe Andino (USA) 16.20 def. Michael Dunphy (USA) 14.50
QF2: Mitch Crews (AUS) 12.76 def. Evan Geiselman (USA) 11.17
QF3: Jay Quinn (NZL) 13.90 def. Billy Stairmand (NZL)
QF4: Richard Christie (NZL) 13.17 def. Perth Standlick (AUS) 9.80