Posts Tagged ‘Pipeline’

It was a small day on the north shore of Oahu, but the swell was dropping and the rest of the week looked like it was gonna be junk, so the contest directors did what needed to be done. They held the contest.

The quarters, the semis, and the finals, all held on a day when getting barreled wasn’t gonna win you the contest. You needed aerials to make it count, and Taj Burrow did just that. The only barrel of the finals scored Kelly a measly 3.93 whereas the aerials for Taj Burrow scored him a 7.00 and a 5.83 and a win in the final jewel of the Vans Triple Crown and $90,000.

Winning the overall three contest prize was Australian Joel Parkinson who was eliminated on Saturday which also eliminated him from an ASP world championship title which would go to Mick Fanning, a fellow aussie surfer and friend. In fact, this image to the right is Joel Parkinson falling on his final wave which would have had him cliniching the ASP.

It’s been a great 6 weeks on the North shore of Oahu with the Vans Triple Crown, womens triple crown, the eddie, a couple of other free surf comps and more.  Congrats to all the surfers.

Parko wins the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing and Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow are going to be in the Pipe Masters finals at 1 PM Hawaii standard time which comes out to 3 PM pacific time.

Check out the finals live over at the triple crown website. Small surf is going to make for an interesting battle. While you’re waiting you can check out photos from saturdays Pipe Masters action as well as Mick Fanning’s World Title pictures.

There are only 8 surfers left competing for the coveted Pipeline Masters trophy.  Today, we’ll find out who will hold it over their head, and we will also find out who will win the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.

Still left in competitino is Dean Morrison, CJ and Damien Hobgood, Flynn Novak, Bede Durbidge, Taj Burrow, Hobgood, Dane Reynolds, and six time pipe champion Kelly Slater.  It should be a great final, whoever makes it in.  Just 7 heats left.

The contest will start at 9 am HST and you can watch all the action live at the pipe masters website.

Micktory shirts were all around as 28 year old Mick Fanning was in the water along side childhood surfing mates Joel Parkinson and Dean Morrison. It was Saturday, December 12th, during the last stop on tour and the last event of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. The stage was set during the 3rd and 4th round of competition.

Joel Parkinson, in the hunt for both the World Title and The Vans Triple Crown title, just needed to win in order to stay in the running for both. If he lost his heat, Mick Fanning would win. Mick, two heats later, entered the water to watch as Parko’s heat and the last heat of the 3rd round finished up before he and Dean Morrison could jump into the lineup.

Parko couldn’t do it, and Mick was crowned Champion with a hug from both out on the water. Fanning had to wait out the next 40 minutes of his own heat before being greet on shore by the rest of his crew and fellow surfers to a champions carry off.

If you haven’t been to the North Shore this weekend, you really need to get out of the house!  The waves are still going off — and the Billabong Pipeline Masters could very well finish tomorrow, thereby ending the Triple Crown in near-record time!  With that event and the Eddie Big Wave Surfing Invitation being held within the same week, traffic on the Kamehameha Highway between Haleiwa Town and Sunset has been completely bottlenecked during midday.

The traffic shouldn’t prevent you from checking out the amazing waves, though, so buckle up and enjoy the slow ride to the country.  One possible route is to take the Likelike to Kahekili, which is considered the “secret passage” to Sunset, Pupukea, Pipeline, Waimea… Well, the list goes on and on.

This winter has already brought some amazing waves to the northern shores of the Hawaiian islands, and that doesn’t expect to let up a single bit — all the way through March!  There’s feel lucky about if you live in Hawaii.

After day one of pipe masters saw past champions fall, collisions at the peak, and epic barrels, day two is sure to please the crowd. It’s a furlough Friday for the Island of Oahu, so you know the traffic to the North Shore will be bad. Not Eddie Aikau bad, but there will be a lot of people heading up that way.

Day 2 action is already underway, just 3 short minutes after 8 AM. Today’s heats will have John John Florence and Andy Irons for sure. And we will most likely get treated to third round action which is where the seeded entrants start entering the water.

Those like Damien Hobgood, Mick Fanning, Freddie P, and Kelly Slater. Also possible to ride, coming in the last heat of the third round is Vans Triple Crown of Surfing leader, Joel Parkinson. Coming off a win at the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach, we all know Parko will be gunning for that winners seat.

This year the Women’s Pipeline Pro will be have their holding period from March 31st to April 14 on the infamous Banzai Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore.  They will hold 3 days of competition from 8 am to 4 pm in women’s longboarding ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals), shortboarding ASP, and bodyboarding IBA (International Bodyboarders Association) allowing 180 female competitors coming from all over the world.  This year will mark 20 years for the Women’s Pipeline Pro which began on 1988.  The Pipeline Pro was orginally started by women bodyboarders, who were the first ever to charge this male dominated surf break.  This year’s purse is the highest in 20 years at $50,000.

This year, pro surfers have teams up with Girl Scouts of Hawaii to help celebrate Women’s leadership.  Pipeline Pro’s 2009 contest theme is courage, confidence, and character, which are common threads between female surfers and scouts.  The women’s surfing community is hoping to inspire young girls to become leaders and live a healty active lifestyle and excel in sports.  This year’s contest will be  dedicated to Women leaders who help make surfing what it is today.  One of those leaders is Patsy Mink a Hawaii congresswoman from the 1970s who worked hard for equal rights for women.  Because of the legislation that was passed by Mink, the Patsy T. Mink Equal Oppurtunity in Education Act of 1972,  women were able to get federal funding to play sports in school.  

The Hawaii women’s surf community is excited and fully charged for this years Pipeline Pro.  As a female surfer I feel women’s surfing has come a long way.  Women are only now being more respected and recognized in the water for their strengths and accomplishments.  Young girls growing up can look forward to becoming anything they want to be including fierce waterwomen.  My good friend, professional bodyboarder Ayako Ancheta is sitting this contest out this year, but only because she is 8 months pregnant.  She has competed in the world tour from 2000 to 2005 and she is an excellent example of a strong water sportswoman.  Not only does she work as a real estate agent, she is also already a proud mother of a three year old son, and she still finds time to surf the north shore with me, pregnant and all.  Women like Ayako give young girls much to look up to.

Ayako & Taryn after surfing V-land, photo by Larry Haynes