?Christie’s late charge perhaps too little too late

Ricardo Christie in action. File picture

RICARDO CHRISTIE backed up his best result on the World Surf League Qualifying Series with ninth place in the Hawaiian Pro at the weekend.

After being seeded into round 3, the Gisborne-Mahia surfer navigated his way into the quarterfinals of the first event of surfing’s Triple Crown, but fell 0.67 points off second and a position in the semifinals for the second QS event in a row.

Christie totalled 14.43 (6.83, 7.60) for his two best waves.

Australian surfer Wade Carmichael won the heat on 17.64, including a 9.27 ride, from Hawaiian Ezekiel Lau (15.10).

Carmichael went on to win the final from Brazilian Filipe Toledo, with Lau third.

It was the second-to-last QS event and Christie will need to produce a massive result in the Vans World Cup in Oahu, scheduled to start tomorrow, if he is to re-qualify for the 2016 Championship Tour through the QS.

His ninth-equal finish earned him 3700 points and bumped him up 16 places into 39th.

He has 12,700 points — 8600 off 10th place and automatic requalification for the CT next year.

Christie has to win the Vans World Cup and claim the 10,000 points to have any chance of making a late entry into the top 10.

The event will be followed by the last CT event of the year — the Pipeline Masters, which starts on December 8.

Christie is 30th in his rookie year on the CT and well adrift of the top 22 spot needed to requalify for the 2016 tour.