6ft swell and smooth faces were all Hawaiian stand up paddle surfer Zane Schweitzer needed to win the 2015 Sapinus Pro Tahiti this week, beating rival Caio Vaz before a critical event in Brazil.

Finally, Zane Schweitzer has won a world tour event in cloudy 6ft conditions in Tahiti. The Sapinus Pro Tahiti was the perfect example of a stand up paddle surfing event held in a true surfing location. The smooth faces and occasional barreling lefts shone a spotlight on the talent breaking through in the stand up paddle surfing scene, none more so than Zane, winning every heat convincingly against the worlds best – showing that he was there for one reason. To beat Caio Vaz.

Winning the Tahiti event was a critical move to dampen current leader, Caio Vaz’s spirits before the August stop of the world tour in his home town of Brazil. With a home-town advantage, winning over Caio is going to be a huge task for anyone on the tour.

Also setting his sights on Vaz’s podium position, was the young Kiwi Daniel Kereopa from New Zealand. He crowd funded his way to the Tahiti stop of the tour, and anxious to prove himself worthy, put on an incredible display of surfing to win him a third place finish. Showing such promising results in his first major surfing event is telling of how good this guy is, so expect to see his name on a lot more podiums this season!

With a big break until the next event in August, paddlers will be training hard in Brazil-like conditions to prepare themselves. Big name surfers like Lenny and Baxter are beginning to fade away into the results lists, so now is the time for young talent to shine… Will Kereopa be the man to rob Vaz of his home town win?

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