So Cal surfers Eithan Osborne and Cole Hashmound ended an exciting day of surfing in the Vans US Open in the most dramatic way possible. Buzzer beaters.
After each advanced earlier in the day to the round of 48, the two lined up in the final two heats of the day, with a chance to get into the top 16.
First came Osborne, who in the morning squad , won his heat thanks to an air maneuver that gained him a score of 7.73.
Then, in the round of 24, the Ventura native trailed the three man heat with under one minute left. With the final seconds ticking down, Osborne grabbed his wave and rode it to a 5.10 score to slip past Tristan Guilbaud for the final qualifying spot as time ran out.
"There was a minute left and I didn't see any waves," a jubilant Osborne said.
"Then with 30 seconds I saw that little right and I said well, I have to go. I was hoping it would come and I'm happy it did. I surfed a lot of NSSA's here and I can't tell you how many contests we surfed that the waves looked exactly like this."
Houshmound reached the round of 24 by taking his heat early in the day with a heat total of 12.74. It was a dominating win for Houshmound, in a heat that featured fellow local star Kanoa Igarashi (who failed to advance).
Then, in the days finale, Houshmound was also in the third spot with time running out and like Osborne just 30 minutes before, caught a wave as the countdown was on.
It looked like he had lost his chance when he paddled for the wave but failed to get it and lost priority. But before the announcer could finish saying the priority change, he was up and riding and the result was a 5.87 and a spot in the round of 16 as he edged out Shane Sykes for second place.
"I lucked out," Houshmound said. "The first one, I missed it and the second one happened to be a good wave so yea I'm stoked."
Local Star Nolan Rapoza, seen here on a beach run with coach Matt Myers, also qualified for the round of 24 with a 10.90 heat total. He surfs Wednesday with a chance to get into the top 16.