Hawaiian surfer hits out after controversial no-interference call

A Hawaiian surfer is furious and calling for change after a controversial move by an Australian rival left his career in jeopardy.

Aussie surf prodigy Jack Robinson’s triumphant qualification for next year’s world surfing tour has been overshadowed by bitter accusations from Hawaii’s Ezekiel Lau.

Lau has accused the 21-year-old from Western Australia of illegally gaining an advantage at a crucial contest at Sunset Beach this week by knocking him off his board.

The duo were competing in the final of the year-ending Vans World Cup of Surfing in Oahu on Tuesday — a qualifying series event Lau needed to win to ensure a place on the 2020 championship tour.

Early in the heat, the Hawaiian tucked into a barrel and fought his way through the white water as he looked to post the first solid score of the four-man final.

But as Lau emerged from inside the wave, Robinson — who was paddling back out — appeared in his path. Robinson ditched his board while ducking under the wave and it clipped Lau, causing him to fall.

Ezekiel Lau tucks inside a barrel as Jack Robinson paddles.

The 26-year-old from Honolulu posted vision of the incident on Instagram on Thursday and insisted Robinson “could have gotten out of the way”.

“You can see surfer in white (Robinson) has enough time to make a conscious decision where to paddle. Just so happens that the line he chose is directly where I drew my line to come out of the barrel, which is the ONLY option I had,” Lau wrote.

“The surfer paddling out has options to avoid the surfer on the wave. He should be in the channel paddling back out.

“This ride would have been the first major score of the heat, but was deemed incomplete because (Robinson) chose to BAIL his surfboard causing me to fall off, hindering the scoring potential of my wave, breaking my board, and leaving white with priority.

“How is it okay for the interfering surfer to gain so much advantage from a collision and an interference not be called?”

Lau received support from other surfers, including two-time big wave world champion Paige Alms who wrote: “Wow. Just wow. Definite interference for sure. U would have made that wave 100 per cent.”

But Robinson defended himself, responding: “Everyone has there opinion, but when you are in the moment the only thing I thought of was to get to the shoulder and also not get ran over,” he wrote. “It was safety first for me. I have the highest ever respect for you Zeke so I would never try and get in the way of you.”

Robinson comfortably won the heat with a two-wave score of 19.07. Lau was second with 12.06 — but could have finished with a higher score if he’d completed the early wave.

Judges also could have ruled Robinson to have made intentional interference, which would have seen him penalised and his score reduced.

Ezekiel Lau believes he's been denied a place on next year's world tour.

The stakes couldn’t have been higher for Lau, who was attempting to win back-to-back titles at Sunset but ultimately finished just outside of the top 10 on the QS.

A CT competitor for the past three years, he now needs a strong result in next week’s Pipe Masters to climb from his current position of 28th in the world to inside the top 22 — which guarantees a spot on next year’s tour.

Robinson will be there waiting for him as a ready-made rival if he does.

Australia's Jack Robinson celebrates after victory in the Sunset Beach Pro. (Photo by Brian Bielmann / AFP)