Kolohe Andino wins the Australian Open of Surfing

Kolohe Andino just won the QS6000 Australian Open of Surfing at Manly. Brother cracked the competitive code last year and get better and better as the year neared its biz end – he then won 2015’s first qualifier, the Shoe City Pro in the US, which saw him roll into Manly as the event’s number two seed. He threw down in every heat and, after opening the final with a 9.27, couldn’t be caught.

“This has been a great event, but I’m not going to take my foot off the gas at all and I’m going to keep getting ready for Snapper,” said Kolohe. “I had a couple of heats where my back was up against the wall and I was able to fight through which is good mental prep for Snapper. I hadn’t really heard of Mateia before, but I was super impressed by his surfing at this event, he was lighting these waves up – I told him to keep the momentum going and to go and get another result in Newcastle next week.”

The Mateia that Brother’s talking about is Mateia Hiquily, a Tahitian whose name you should probably get to know. As should marketing managers of the world. The kid took down Mick Fanning, Ryan Callinan, Billy Stairmand and Joan Duru to take a swing at Brother in the final.

“I’m speechless right now, I’m so happy!” said Mateia. “I trained really hard for this event, then two weeks ago hurt my shoulder so I’ve been taking it easy and it worked for me. I won a QS at home in Tahiti last year but it was a small one, so to now get a second place at a QS6000 is huge for my confidence.”