I took the patience and waited for another set of waves,” Tokong told MindaNews after the competition.
“When the announcer made a countdown, I told myself not to be down and instead took the courage to think positively and made a good decision,” Tokong said, adding that he took the charge with less than 20 seconds to go and gave the best he could to win the title.
“Marama” in the barrel, just before his aerial. MindaNews photo by ROEL N. CATOTO
Tokong finished with total combined points of 16.80 while Beschen had 16.75.
Prior to the final game, in the last elimination round on Tuesday, Tokong avenged his loss last year to Skip McCullough, who won the championship as the home-grown surfer settled for first runner-up.
Tokong, the only remaining Filipino surfer left in the competition after 20 others were eliminated in the early rounds, outclassed the American surfer along with South African Koby Oberholzer in the aerial fashion.
Tokong dominated against Indonesian surfer Oney Anwar in the quarterfinals.
