The Xcel Pro may have found its next generation of surfing stars.

Led by Maui's Ian Walsh, a young group of surfers took the spotlight at the 22nd annual Xcel Pro presented by No Fear yesterday.

The final day of the three-day contest was completed in 3- to 6-foot waves at Sunset Beach.

"This is my first pro win, so I'm never going to forget it," Walsh said. "It was so cool to surf with all the young guys out there, and to win it just made the whole thing even better."

At 22, Walsh was the oldest surfer in the four-man final.

"I felt like a grandpa out there," he said.

The others were: Nathan Carroll, 20; Hank Gaskell, 19; Raymond Reichle, 19.

"This is one of the most powerful waves in the world and it's a tough spot to surf, so to have all the young guys do well says a lot," Walsh said.

Walsh, who is from Ku'au, is earning a reputation as an elite big-wave surfer, so yesterday's conditions were small by his standards. Not that it mattered to him.

"I do the big-wave stuff when it happens, but I grew up surfing waves like this," he said. "I have just as much fun surfing small waves, especially when it's with my friends."

Walsh established his seniority early in the final and forced the others to play catch up.

"I always like to be the deepest guy in heats just in case a good one comes through," he said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time it did."

Midway through the heat, Walsh caught one of the rare good ones and carved it to an 8.5 score.

"It had a nice wall and let me do three big turns," he said. "A lot of it is luck. I was in the right place at the right time."

Walsh caught five waves in the final, and his two best waves received scores of 8.5 and 7.5 for a total of 16.0.

He received $7,000 for the victory.

Fellow Maui surfer Gaskell placed second with a two-wave score of 12.9. Gaskell, who is from Hana, said yesterday's final reminded him of "the old days" in the National Scholastic Surfing Association.

"We used to go up each other all the time, but we hardly see each other in heats in the (pro) contests, so it was pretty cool to see all those guys in there," Gaskell said.

Walsh added: "This is huge for Maui, too. It goes to show there's a lot of us coming up from there."

Reichle and Carroll are both from Sunset Beach, but their respective strategies were foiled in the final.

Reichle caught the most waves (eight) in the final, but could never find a high-scoring ride.

"This is my home break, so I really wanted to win it here," he said. "But I can't complain. I knew where to be for the waves, but I just didn't get any good ones in the final."

Carroll wanted to be patient in the final, but he wound up sitting on his board for the first 22 minutes of the 35-minute heat.

"I gambled and it didn't pay off," he said. "I was in that same place the whole contest, and I was getting waves, but it just didn't work this time."

Several other young Hawai'i surfers had impressive showings yesterday, including Gavin Gillette (tied for fifth), Chas Chidester and Dusty Payne (both eliminated in the quarterfinals).

Pancho Sullivan, a three-time former Xcel Pro champ, was eliminated in the semifinals.

Honolulu's Kekoa Uemura won the longboard expression session by default. He actually placed second, but was awarded the $1,000 first place check when actual winner Bonga Perkins failed to show for the awards ceremony.

Xcel Pro officials had until Nov. 10 to run the final day, but there are no large swells predicted for the next two weeks.

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is scheduled to begin Nov. 12 at Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach.

IRONS, SLATER ADVANCE

The world title race will go on for another day.

Kaua'i's Andy Irons and Florida's Kelly Slater — the only two surfers in contention for the 2005 world championship — both won their first-round heats at the Nova Schin Festival.

The opening day was held in 3-foot waves at Florianopolis, Brazil.

Irons, the three-time defending world champ, had a near-perfect score of 9.5 in his first-round victory.

As first-round winners, Irons and Slater advanced directly to round three.

Slater, who owns a record six world championships, is currently ranked No. 1 with 7,896 points. Irons is No. 2 with 7,128, and must finish ahead of Slater in this contest to remain in contention.

XCEL PRO

FINAL RESULTS

1, Ian Walsh (Maui), $7,000. 2, Hank Gaskell (Maui), $3,500. 3, Raymond Reichle (O'ahu), $2,500. 4, Nathan Carroll (O'ahu), $2,000. 5 (tie), Gavin Gillette (Kaua'i) and Myles Padaca (O'ahu), $1,500. 7 (tie), Matt Thompson (Australia) and Pancho Sullivan (O'ahu), $1,000. 9 (tie), Rainos Hayes (O'ahu), Chas Chidester (O'ahu), Ross Williams (O'ahu) and Dusty Payne (Maui), $900. 13 (tie), Shinpei Horiguchi (Japan), Darren Muschett (Puerto Rico), Marcus Hickman (O'ahu) and Love Hodel (O'ahu), $800.

LONGBOARD EXPRESSION SESSION

1, Kekoa Uemura, $1,000. 2, Kai Sallas, $500. 3, Ned Snow, $300.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.