With an eye already on the year-ending Triple Crown, the 2014 surf season has gotten underway right where it left off in 2013. The Volcom Pipe Pro waiting period began Sunday, though no action has yet taken place as organizers
With an eye already on the year-ending Triple Crown, the 2014 surf season has gotten underway right where it left off in 2013. The Volcom Pipe Pro waiting period began Sunday, though no action has yet taken place as organizers wait for the wind and the bumps to dissipate.
This first event of the year is a showcase for Hawaii’s best surfers and has more than just bragging rights at stake. As a 5-Star event on the World Qualifying Series, plenty of points are available. But more than that, the top eight finishing Hawaii surfers will gain local seeds into the 2014 Pipe Masters.
Starting with a 112-surfer field, the biggest names are Kelly Slater and John John Florence. Considered the best two Pipe surfers in the world, the 41-year-old legend and the 21-year-old phenom finished last season in style with a head-to-head battle in the Pipe Masters final. Slater came away with the victory that day, while Florence’s performance earned him his second Triple Crown championship.
Slater and Florence will each begin the event in the third round when the field has been whittled down to just 64 competitors. Not everyone has such a favorable draw and most of the Kauai contingent will be hitting the water in the early rounds.
Eight four-man heats will comprise the opening round, including Kauai surfers Stephen Koehne, Chris Foster, Koa Smith and Reef McIntosh. The Round of 96 sees the opening heats for Gavin Gillette, Dylan Goodale, Alex Smith and Kaimana Jaquias. Pancho Sullivan has one of the top seeds and receives a double bye into the Round of 64.
Other notable Hawaii surfers will include former Triple Crown champions Myles Padaca and Sunny Garcia along with Freddy Patacchia, Dusty Payne and Ezekiel Lau.
All will be chasing Florence, who has become the face of the event by winning the past three Volcom Pipe Pros. John John has set the standard for the epic wave he has been navigating since age 8. As defending champion two years ago, he trailed Jamie O’Brien in the final heat. O’Brien was already a three-time Pipeline Pro champion and appeared to be on his way to a fourth. Florence had booked a perfect 10, but still trailed the man known as “JOB,” who had compiled a monster 19.40. With only eight seconds on the clock, Florence paddled deep into a backdoor wave and was spit clean out for a 9.93 and one of the best Pipeline finishes ever seen.
The final day of the 2013 Pipe Masters was deemed one of the greatest days at the world-renowned wave, with some narrow victories, huge wipeouts and unlikely comebacks. Events and swell of the past couple weeks make a big day likely in the near future. Surfline.com, the official forecaster for the event, calls for a new northwest swell to have started late Tuesday and into today, with the wind gusts backing off considerably. The Volcom Pipe Pro waiting period will run through Feb. 7.
