Johnson leads winners of Point Break Open

Ten of the more than 50 participants in the 2nd International PIC/Monster Point Break Open wowed the crowd and judges with their moves at the Pacific Islands flowrider facility in San Antonio Saturday afternoon.

Leading the list was Saipan’s multi-sports athlete Andrew Johnson, who topped the Grommet (11-and-under) division of the tournament, which showcased the participants’ creativity, variety, and difficulty of movements, speed, style, and poise using a bodyboard while maneuvering their way into machine-operated waves.

Johnson drew 32.9 points from the panel of five judges to finish ahead of Rion Nawata, who scored only 32.5 points.

In the centerpiece men’ open division, Gerald Domingo defended his title after beating Korea’s Yoon Seung Hyun and Japan’s Keoni Ichihara.

Domingo, who was seeded third in the tournament after Friday’s qualifying event, collected 9.2 points to prevail against Hyun (8.95) and Ichihara (8.75).

In the men’s and women’s open divisions, participants were graded from 0 to 10 with 10 as the highest. Each participant was given 45 seconds to one minute to execute their moves.

Domingo earned the $500 top purse for ruling the men’s open.

In the women’s division, fourth-ranked Park Hwa Young of Korea pulled off an upset over her higher-seeded foes.

Young scored 8.97 points to down first-picked Ko Hyun Mi (8.85) and second-ranked Cho Hyun Ji (8.4). Young won a 5-day/4-night stay for two at PIC-Saipan for winning the women’s Open title.

The kids division, which featured flowriders in the 12-17 age group, was also a neck-and-neck battle between Hayato Nogami and Reon Nawat with the former prevailing after getting 33.17 points. Nawat had 31.43 points.

A total of 54 flowriders participated in the second edition of the annual tournament and many of them flew in from Japan and Korea just to compete in the event.

PIC, through tournament coordinator Glenn Francis Policare, thanked the following for making the event possible: Monster Energy Drink, Pepsi, Gatorade, BSEA Sunsports, Quiksilver, Tony Roma’s, Capricciosa, Hollywood Theaters, Hard Rock Café-Saipan, Boarderline, Hyatt Regency Saipan, Saipan Sunset Cruises, Blockbuster Video, and Elite Printing.

Policare assured participants that the Point Break tournament will return next year and will be played on Sept. 25 and 26.