The 2008 ITSA/ISA World Title of Tandem Surfing opened on Thursday morning with a total of 24 qualifying teams from Hawaii, California, Florida, Costa Rica, and France competing in six Opening Round heats.  We comfortably won our 20 minute first heat despite the small (1' - 2') and inconsistent waves that slowly rolled through in between long lulls.  On Friday morning, we won both our 20 minute Quarter Final and Semi Final heats in even flatter conditions, which left teams floating for most of our heats and scratching for waves whenever they appeared. 

There was a bit of an upset in one of the Quarter Final heats when a relatively new Waikiki team bested 2006's World Champions, Brian Keaulana/Kathy Terada (HAW).  This ultimately landed Keaulana and Terada in a stacked Semi Final heat with one of the highly favored teams, Rico Leroy/Sarah Burel (FRA), and 2007's World Champions, Kalani Vierra/Ala Vierra (HAW), who we were runners up to last year.  We expected all three of these teams to be in the Final with us and were surprised that one of them would be eliminated earlier than expected.

Teams who advanced to the Final on Saturday afternoon were: Chuck Inman/Tiffany Rabacal (HAW), Rico Leroy/Sarah Burel (FRA), Brian Keaulana/Kathy Terada (HAW), and Clay Huntington/Kristen Huntington (USA).  The 30 minute heat was held during high tide and set waves were few and far between.  After missing the first three waves we paddled for, we finally got onto a total of four waves and were able to cleanly complete both lift sequences we had planned while getting our surfing maneuvers done.  And at the end of the day, our best was good enough to clinch a close victory over the French team...our very first win!!! 

A big mahalo to all our friends and family who came down to support us!  :)

- Chuck & Tiff...World Champions!!!