Rapson making waves

Barbadian teenager Caleb Rapson is having the time of his life at the Soup Bowl in Bathsheba having advanced into the semifinal and round of 16 for two major events at the ongoing World Surf League (WSL) North America Pro event sponsored by Diamonds International.

The 19-year-old who has never made it past the first round in this event has qualified for the semifinal of the WSL North America Juniors Live Like Zander Junior Pro in Memory of Zander Venezia. And he has also made the round of 16 for the 2022 WSL Barbados Surf Pro Men’s Qualifying Series.

Competing in heat two Rapson gave the performance of his career with an overall score of 14.40 points out of a possible 20. The closest to that tally was Alan Cleland with a score of 14.27 awarded by the panel of judges.

Speaking with Barbados TODAY after his performance, an elated Rapson said he felt great and was looking forward to the next round.

“I am feeling really great. Very happy to have the contest back after three years of COVID. I am happy to be back competing again. This is my first event for the year and I am hoping to do well.

“This is the best I have ever done and I am feeling great. I am pretty happy with the waves, earlier on it was windy but now the waves are bigger than they have been the whole week and means more scoring potential,” Rapson explained.

He added: “I believe in always being humble at Soup Bowl because it is one of the best waves in the world. So, I will not study it too much and just go out there and do my thing.”

Meanwhile, fellow Barbadian Che Allan who featured in heat four was left disappointed as the waves did not cooperate as well as he had hoped. Allan who was third overall in his heat amassed 11.74 points but missed out on a chance to advance after the eventual winner Jabe Swierkocki of Venture, California, accounted for a total of 12.66 points ahead of second-place finisher Michael Dunphy with 11.84 to keep the American flag in it.

“I am a little disappointed in the last heat. My first two heats went well but in the last one there were not too many waves and I only needed a small score to make it but there wasn’t really any opportunity, unfortunately.

“I think with the two days I had off for the juniors and women to compete, I think I took too much time to rest and got out of my zone a little bit and unfortunately I did not get much opportunity in that heat,” Allan explained.

Allan spoke about the quality of the surfers. “Everyone was surfing well and I felt confident given that I won this event a couple of times but unfortunately the waves didn’t cooperate today.”

It was a day filled with inconsistent waves but the surfers with some impressive techniques including the backhand vertical which is where most of them found favour with the judges and scored points – still had fun.

(morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)