Kolohe Andino & Laura Enever - Australian Open of Surfing Champions

Saturday, February 14th, 2015, Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia. Laura Enever (North Narrabeen, NSW/AUS) and Kolohe Andino (San Clemente, CA/USA) have fought through a solid field of the world's best surfers to be crowned the men's and women's Hurley Australian Open of Surfing champions. This prestigious World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series QS6000 event saw Manly Beach turn on the charm all week and produce great surf, sunshine and an exciting finish to Sydney's biggest surfing event.

Andino is the event's No. 2 seed and didn't disappoint all week, lighting up the lineup with inverted aerials and powerful wraps and snaps. Andino finished No. 11 in the world last year and is focused on breaking into the Top 10 this season and after he opened his account in the Final with a near-perfect 9.27 he'll be one to watch this year.

"This has been a great event, but I'm not going to take my foot off the gas at all and I'm going to keep getting ready for Snapper," Andino said. "I had a couple of heats where my back was up against the wall and I was able to fight through which is good mental prep for Snapper. I hadn't really heard of Mateia (Hiquily) before, but I was super impressed by his surfing at this event, he was lighting these waves up - I told him to keep the momentum going and to go and get another result in Newcastle next week."

Enever has won her hometown event in spectacular fashion, besting reigning six-time World Champion Stephanie Gilmore yesterday and last year's World No. 2 Tyler Wright (South Coast, NSW/AUS) in today's Final to win her first professional event since 2010. Enever surfed fast and aggressive and amassed two scores in the 7-point-range to take the win leading into the start of the first Championship Tour event of the year on the Gold Coast at the end of the month.

"Just before this event I went over to P-pass to surf some perfect waves and I've been wanting to do that for the last five years," Enever said. "Lately I've been grinding away in contests and to be able to get away and chase a swell made all the difference. It feels so good, it's almost a relief to win something again and in front of the home crowd makes it even better."

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