Kyle Garson Reigns at Quiksilver’s King of the Peak. The 11th annual Quiksilver King of the Peak skins event kicked off this past weekend at the infamous Sebastian Inlet. A total of eighty-eight pawns lined the beach on Saturday morning each eager to climb into the prestigious thrown which has been seated by some of the East Coast’s highest royalty including Kelly Slater, CJ Hobgood, Bryan Hewitson, Eric Hatton, Justin Jones, David Speir, Todd Morcom and Bill Hartley. The battle field consisted of a 3 to 4 foot wind swell with a 3 foot underlying groundswell during the entire duration of the event. For those of you not quite familiar with the skins format, each surfer is able to catch as many waves possible but once they ride a wave that they feel has a high score they must raise their hands to claim it inorder for it to count. The surfer with the highest claim earns $250 and goes on to surf another heat. The first day of competition saw St. Augustine’s Zander Morton ahead with four skins (no pun intended) until Sebastian surgeon Kyle Garson cut it off in Heat 14. Kyle, who two weeks earlier had claimed victory across the ocean at the WQS 2 star event in the Canary Islands, started a roll of his own collecting an impressive five skins and taking a narrow lead over Sargeant Zander. To wind out the day Jupitor’s Ryan Helm edged out Vero Beach’s Travis Beckman to collect $300 in the ESM Air Show. On the final day Kyle Garson was able to snag one more skin (now totaling 6) before having his 5.75 score in his next heat edged out by 19 year old Rylan McCart who was able to squeek past him with a 6.1. The young Sebastian local added a couple more skins to his collection before he met up with fellow Hurley teamrider Zander Morton who was looking mighty hungry and in dire need of one more skin to at least tie Garson for the lead. If this would occur then both surfers (Garson and Zander) would have to surf off man-on-man to crown the KING. But to Zanders dismay along came the spoiler, Ryan Helm, and his heat winning 6.6 that the St. Auggie surfer just couldn’t find a match for thus officially giving Kyle Garson the title as this years KING OF THE PEAK. Kyle Garson dedicated his win to his friend Austin Paine who recently had passed away. Story and Photo’s by Kevin Welsh / SurfNRG.com. |
