Have you ever taken a road trip in a vehicle that was not fit for the job? Some clunker that had you anxious the entire ride with thoughts of breakdown, brakes going out, and tire falling off, the whole adventure taking hours longer than it should. Remember the feeling of relief once you finally reached your destination? This is comparable to the Pipeline Pro Finals Day yesterday. It sure wasn’t pretty, but we got there.
If you’re a surfer on the North Shore and you scored Pipe the other day the way it was (not fantastic), rocking up to the sight of the lineup today would have had you cracking a cold one, sparking your spliff and calling it a day. Not when it’s a sport, a job, or a career. Out you go into some slop for 3 turns to the beach. Of course we did see bits of cone coverage, its Pipeline, but the entire day heavily featured maneuvers. I felt like I couldn’t wait for it to be over. There was a comfort in the final horn sounding, not only for Jack Robinson and Carissa Moore.
Since you undoubtedly already know what happened, I’m going to skip the breakdown. If there’s anything to watch or talk about from the day, it’s Men’s QF’s heats 3 & 4. Joao took out Filipe, and then Jack beat John. To me, this was the only period the waves didn’t look challenging; they actually made it look pretty fun. Instead of running down heat by heat, here are some notes that mean nothing at all.
- 10 heats surfed. 123 waves ridden. 3 excellent scores. 10 “very good” (6.5 or up) scores. 42 waves under a 1 point ride.
- Robbo is the first Australian champ at Pipe since Julian Wilson in 2014.
- Carissa and Moana Jones Wong have kept the Pipe Pro trophy at home, marking back-to-back victories for Hawaiian Women.
- Leonardo could have won every heat he surfed through the event, including the final, with an 11 point heat total.
- Carissa’s only opponent to put up a double digit heat score was Tyler Wright in the Final – she had 10 points even.
- Last year only 1 male who made the Quarterfinals at Pipe did not make the mid year cut – Lucca Messinas.
That’s all I’ve really got for now. I mean it wasn’t an outstanding Finals Day by any means. All the action happened the other day. Hope your fantasy team fared better than mine (thanks Griff). I am creating this weird stat page that I think could be interesting to update throughout the year. I’ll show you that soon. Also, there’s a little Sunset prep in the works. The waiting period starts Sunday, so I’ll have that out tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Cheers,
hwilsin