Kaua‘i’s Kawika Stillwell was one of two surfers who scored a perfect 10 yesterday in the Monster Energy Pipeline Pro on O‘ahu’s North Shore. Wave-face heights came in at 6 to 8 feet yesterday and surfers had their picks at
Kaua‘i’s Kawika Stillwell was one of two surfers who scored a perfect 10 yesterday in the Monster Energy Pipeline Pro on O‘ahu’s North Shore.
Wave-face heights came in at 6 to 8 feet yesterday and surfers had their picks at peaks from Off-the-wall to Backdoor and Pipeline.
Stillwell set the pace in the second heat of the morning, finding a long, double-barrel at Backdoor in Round 3. He went on to advance to Round 2.
Round 3 also saw Floridian Devon Tresher make his mark with the second perfect 10 of the day. Already carrying an excellent score of 8.0 for an earlier ride, Tresher’s 10 contributed to the highest heat score of the contest to date: 18.0 points out of a possible 20.
With the 10, Stillwell won his heat. Stillwell then finished second in his heat in Round 4 and advances to surf another round.
Evan Valiere also had a good day yesterday, winning his heat in Round 4. Roy Powers finished second in his heat, but still advances to the next round where he will surf off against Valiere.
But the day took an unexpected turn when three-time world champion Andy Irons took a spill exiting from a tube at Backdoor.
In what turned out to be an incident-packed match, Irons appeared to lose all momentum in that instant.
Paddling back out he was run over by Californian Matt Mohagen, who went on to win the heat. Mohagen accidentally rode over Irons as he exited his own barrel ride. Irons, according to a release, emerged from the incident uninjured.
For his second ride, Irons took off together with Puerto Rico’s Alejandro Moreda. Both surfers fell and Moreda incurred an interference penalty. After that, Irons went over the “falls” after pulling back from a take-off then found himself on a left-hander that offered nothing. Out of rhythm, he elected to paddle to shore with two-and-a-half minutes of the 20-minute heat remaining. He posted only 2.51 points, which was most likely the lowest heat total of his career.
Other Kaua‘i surfers, Dustin Barca, Kamalei Alexander and Bruce Irons did not surf yesterday.
