The Mission -Homecoming - Ian Walsh Wins.

Ian Walsh wins the first edition of O'Neill The Mission

Just when we thought it was all over, the Haumana motored into the pass at Taapuna and Ry, Hugo, Aritz and Russell just couldn’t resist the call of one last freesurf on The Mission in fun waist to shoulder high lefthanders with a light sideoffshore wind.

The rest of the crew spent their time relaxing on the boat and sorting through the almost two hours of total waves logged during the sessions and freesurfs over the last week. A big shout must go out to Manu, our on-site video editor who spent snow hours straight in front of the computer yesterday, editing everyone’s parts for the voting and logging in the last waves from the last session of the Mission at Taapuna.

Once all the boys were out of the water, the Haumana motored out of the barrier reef on Tahiti and into the sunset for a last dinner and party under the stars moored in the beautiful Cook’s bay on the island of Moorea. The final festivities were highlighted by the crew jamming out some solid Tahitian sounds on the bar deck, to the delight of Russell Winter’s dancing feet. A big Maururu to Anto, Caro, Tamatoa, Moe, Remy and Pauline (the Birthday girl) for the great tunes !

Everyone (almost), was up early this morning to enjoy the scenery of Moorea and Cook’s Bay over breakfast, before motoring to Tahiti for the final voting and awards presentation.

The Haumana docked in front of local hot spot, The Pink Coconut for a very animated awards ceremony to the sounds of the boat’s crew busting out their best Tahitian tunes. A few rain showers didn’t dampen the mood, and the winner of $25,000 US on the inaugural edition of The Mission, Ian Walsh had this to say about his first place finish:

"I’m so psyched ! Just to surf with these guys all week was unreal. To win the whole thing, the money and all is just icing on the cake!"



Russell Winter finished one point behind Ian in the final vote tally to take home the second place check for $6,500 US plus $1000 US for his Best Tube award from the Teahupoo sessions. In third place, Australia’s Ry Craike will fly back to the Bluff with $3,5000 US in his wallet. All the rest of the surfers on the Mission take home $3,000 US : 4th – Bernardo Miranda, 5th – Aritz Aranburu, 6th – Luke Munro, 7th – Hugo Savalli, 8th – Noi Kaulukukui.



Check all the action from all the freesurfs on www.oneilleurope.com.

Thanks for surfing with us on The Mission, the ultimate freesurf contest challenge from the whole crew at O’Neill !