The Billabong Pipe Masters, the third and final jewel of the Triple Crown of Surfing and the final World Championship Tour event of the 2013 season, got underway Sunday on Oahu. With 48 surfers in the event, two rounds were
The Billabong Pipe Masters, the third and final jewel of the Triple Crown of Surfing and the final World Championship Tour event of the 2013 season, got underway Sunday on Oahu. With 48 surfers in the event, two rounds were completed Sunday and two more on Tuesday, narrowing the field down to 12 competitors.
Among them is Sebastian Zietz, who is looking for back-to-back Triple Crown championships – a feat that’s actually been done numerous times, including twice each by Andy Irons and Sunny Garcia. Seabass has had a good Triple Crown series, taking a pair of Equal Ninth place finishes at the Reef Hawaiian Pro and the Vans World Cup. He entered the Pipe Masters in seventh place in the Triple Crown ratings.
After the first four rounds, there are still a number of potential winners for the prestigious annual Hawaiian award, but only a handful who can still add to their point totals. The only surfer ahead of Zietz in the ratings who is still alive in the Pipe Masters is France’s Jeremy Flores.
Flores knocked out Tahiti’s Michel Bourez, the current Triple Crown leader, in the third round. Ezekiel Lau came into the event tied with Bourez for the points lead, but he lost his opening-round heat. Freddy Patacchia entered in third, but was eliminated in the third round and American Damien Hobgood was fourth but lost in the second round.
While the others have fallen, Zietz has kept himself in the mix with a win over Ryan Callinan in the second round – a win that included a perfect 10 – and a victory over Adriano de Souza in the third round.
Two others in the remaining 12 are each eyeing a World Championship Tour title, as Mick Fanning and Kelly Slater will settle this year’s champ on Pipe’s final day.
Needing an event win and nothing less to even have a chance to take home his 12th world title, Slater opened his week Tuesday with a dominant performance. Going up against Australia’s Mitch Crews, Slater found an 8.33 wave right off the bat without priority. He later added a 9.33 back door wave he had very little business escaping. It was quickly a combo situation for Crews, who never got anything going as Slater advanced easily with a 17.66 to 3.30 win.
Fanning also delivered a quick start in his third-round heat against Kauai’s Kaimana Jaquias. The local wild card had been surfing great throughout the event, notching wins over Kieren Perrow and Felipe Toledo on Sunday and putting up some big scores in the process. But he ran into the current No. 1 surfer in the world on Tuesday and Fanning was very active in a 15.63 to 6.27 win over Jaquias. If Fanning reaches the semifinals, he will clinch his third world title.
The fourth round was a non-elimination round of three-man heats with the winners advancing directly into the quarterfinals. Australia’s Yadin Nicol used a perfect 10-point ride to pick up the opening heat win, sending CJ Hobgood and Julian Wilson into the fifth round of man-on-man elimination heats.
Stepping into his own backyard, John John Florence won the second heat to move into the quarters, sending Fanning and Nat Young into the fifth round. That’s one additional heat Fanning has to worry about as he tries to thwart off Slater’s title bid. For Florence, a Pipe Masters championship would certainly give him a chance at his second Triple Crown title, which he won for the first time in 2011.
The third heat quickly turned into a heads-up battle between Slater and Zietz, as each picked up early back door rides for big scores. It was Seabass with the lead until Slater found a left with about four minutes remaining to pull ahead and take the win directly into the quarters, sending Zietz and Miguel Pupo into the fifth round.
The day’s final heat saw Joel Parkinson, last year’s Pipe Masters champ, surf his way into the quarters to put Flores and Kai Otton in the fifth round. Those fifth-round elimination matchups will be Hobgood-Fanning, Young-Wilson, Zietz-Otton and Flores-Pupo.
According to the forecasters, action will likely be off until Friday or Saturday, when the call could be made for the final day of action. With both the Triple Crown and WCT titles still up in the air, a perfect day at Pipe would be the fitting conclusion to 2013.
