The Southwest Conference Explorer Season event #5 was off and running at Church in the San Onofre State Park.  The competitors were hungry to pick up valuable 5-star rated points at the midseason contest as momentum builds towards Regional and National Championship qualification. 

Day one of the contest on Saturday started out small with weak 1-2 foot waves but a bump in swell arrived for Sunday and provided the competitors with fun chest high waves.  San Clemente local Shaw Kobayashi was unstoppable in familiar waters at Church and locked up two outstanding wins, one in the Men’s and then an impressive come-from-behind victory in the Juniors.  He posted the top scoring ride in the Juniors final earning an excellent 8.0 on a left where he blasted a series of vertical backside turns. 

Kanoa Igarashi was again a contest standout racking up another tremendous double victory performance in the Boys and Menehuene divisions.  Amazingly enough, this was the sixth time this season that the 11-year-old rising star has pulled off double division wins. With 19 total wins to his credit, not only does Igarashi have an overwhelming shot at smashing the current record of 21, he is possibly headed towards one of the greatest victory runs in the sport as there are numerous events still remaining on the regular season schedule.