Keanu Asing is proving he can get it done against the big names, on the big stage, when it matters. The 2009 Boys Under-16 ISA World Junior Champion, who came up short at Nationals on Saturday, took home top podium honors at the Nike 6.0 Pier Pressure, pocketing a cool 35 hundo and bolstering his rating by 2,500 points in the North American Junior Men standings. The win was his first in a Pro Junior this season and Nike’s Grade-4 also just happens to be the biggest and most hotly pursued prize on the North American circuit this year.

Despite opening the day in clean, waist- to head-high peaks, building NW winds and a rising tide made the surf erratic around mid to late morning. In conditions that were far better suited to competitors from Southern California and the East Coast who are used to groveling and toiling in wind-blown summer mush -- at least more so than the surf-spoiled Hawaiians -- Asing was clutch. It wasn’t always pretty, but he did well with what he was given and executed what most competitors in the later stages of the contest adopted as a pretty formulaic tactical approach to their heats – stroke into waves that set up well for a big maneuver on the outside, then link it up to the inside reform where they could slide in one last maneuver on the shorebreak closeout.

Asing was active early in the 35-minute final, posting a pair of 5.5’s. Surfing the right coming off of the pier, Malibu’s Dillon Perillo countered and moved into the lead with a 7.0. Perillo exploded into the crumbling lip on the outside section and milked the fat section until the inside where he finished with another lip hit.

But Asing was unshakeable. Having found a good rhythm since the early going, the 16-year-old upped the ante one last time. Stroking into a wave that had a bit more juice, the young Hawaiian capitalized on the scoring opportunity, completing a big, effortless, forehand tail slide on the outside, then wrapped back into the whitewater and nursed it to the inside where he landed another powerful tail slide. The judges awarded him a 7.5, which proved to be too much for Perillo (who, for whatever reason, couldn’t scratch into the set waves to save his life), Wilson (who put up a 6.5 earlier in the heat but failed to back it up with another solid score), and Thompson (who couldn’t muster anything better than a 5.7).

“Before the final I was watching and there weren’t too many waves, maybe two flurries in a heat,” Asing said. “I just waited for the sets; I just had to be ready, tried not to get cold, and they came.”

“You had to make sure to get the set-waves and be in the right spot,” Perillo, said. “If you’re too far to the left of the bowl, behind the bubble, you can’t get the waves. I was in position for the set waves, but I just didn’t get in to them. It’s my fault.”

But don’t feel too bad for Perillo. He’s finished well into the money (i.e. the finals) in each of the three North American Pro Juniors he’s competed in this year. And the event wasn’t exactly a wash for the other Americans in the Final either. Thompson, who finished third, goes home $1,800 richer and 1,825 points higher in the ratings, while Wilson, the fourth place finisher, will pocket $1,300 and boost his rating in the Pro Junior standings by 1,675. Not a bad haul for a weekend’s worth of work.

“I'm really happy with my results this year -- I'm getting on a roll this year and I just want to keep it going," Asing said.

He added that this win ranks high but not highest on his list of favorite wins. “Probably second, for sure,” Asing said.. “I can’t believe I won.”