Pipeline Goes Off

Kelly Slater is unbelievable at Pipeline. He has the wave completely wired, going both ways, and his surfing there – especially at Backdoor – goes back to a quote by Shaun Tomson from Surfers: The Movie: “Sometimes you get those deep barrels and then there are those very special ones where you think you are controlling the wave… but you know I think you do… control the wave.”

 

 

Even at 34, Slater is extraordinarily limber and quick and when he takes off on waves – especially the rights – he arches under the lip halfway down the face and sets a line that seems to anticipate sections and barrels and glurges and warbles that haven’t even formed yet. Tom Curren once described Gerry Lopez at Pipeline as like “letting an arrow fly,” but Slater is more like a sidewinder missile, winding through barrels almost like he has Jedi powers, where he can see things before they happen.

 

Slater is unbelievable at Pipe when he is on, and the only thing more unbelievable is someone actually beating him going both ways. And yet that is what Andy Irons pulled out of a hat in the final of the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters, held on the afternoon of Thursday, December 14, 2006, in six to eight foot surf at the Banzai Pipeline.

 

This was the third and final of a three-day event, which had been postponed two days before at the end of the Second Round.  The surf was pretty good Pipe on Tuesday, but Randy Rarick made the call to postpone the event on a B+ Pipe day, hoping for even more challenging conditions on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. The swell did not show up on Wednesday afternoon, but by Thursday morning, Pipe was booming under cloudy skies and rain, with strong offshores grooming it all to gnarly perfection.

 

I got there late. Parking next to Lost star Dominic Monaghan in his Black Prius at the $5 lot next to the rooster cages. Monaghan didn’t want to be recognized or pose for a photo with my Canadian friend – who loooooooves him as Charlie the Heroin Addict in Lost. In the time it took to walk five minutes from the parking field to the scaffolding, the weather transformed – as Hawaii does – from gray and gloomy and rainy and offshore, to blue and sunsplashed and clear and offshore.

 

Walking down the right of way that lead to the scaffold, a pissed Tamayo Perry walked past with two boards under his arms and a Polynesian scowl on his face, muttering, “That was b---------.” Weaving through the scores of people all along the beach, my coveted Media Pass got me past the Braddah Security up the stairs and to the best seats in the house. On the first level of the scaffold there was a media area with power outlets and a place to rest a computer and see the action from a high angle looking directly into the barrel at Pipeline. I wangled the Wi Fi password out of Manu Ziul of the ASP, there were cold energy drinks and water in a bucket, people coming to and fro and it was a little piece of heaven.

 

Checking the heat sheets I saw that Tamayo Perry had lost by three-tenths of a point to Roy Powers, which explained Tamayo’s Polynesian unhappy face. All Hawaiian surfers – and especially Pipe experts like Tamayo – want to prove themselves at their, and all dream of making it to the final.

 

I got settled and online and taking notes for the last heat of the Third Round, in time to see Bobby Martinez and Evan Valiere take off at the same time and both ride it straight for a double interference.. As Jamie O’Brien dominated the heat – and ended it taking off backside on a right and switching foot in the barrel, Valiere battled back and made second even with the interference – a semi-impossible feat that was the shape of things to come.

 

Goofyfoots are at a disadvantage at Pipe in this modern world, but in the first quarter, goofies Rob Machado and Damien Hobgood took down a charging Ian Walsh and Mick Lowe. Hobgood scored a 9.83 with a really long backside barrel at Backdoor and complimented that with an 8.17 on a left. Machado’s specialty is grabbing those wedging little nuggets and pulling into makeable barrels while the others were chasing closeouts and hoping for the best.

 

As this was going on, Shaun Tomson showed up in the media area and checked out the scene. The 1976 Pipe Masters champion, Tomson was one of the pioneers of the backside attack on the lefts and surfing the barrel going backdoor, and his handiwork was in evidence in every heat on a long day. As they watched Damien Hobgood score that long backside barrel, Bernie asked Shaun, “How is your pig dog stance these days, more dog than pig?”

 

“We shall see,” said Shaun.

 

In the next heat, it was Dustin Barca, Luke Stedman and Bruce Irons battling for second as Slater gave lessons. At the start of the heat he flew like an arrow through a double barrel and scored an 8.83, wondering some to wonder what a brother’s gotta do to score a 9.

 

Slater nearly got a paddling interference going left in front of Dustin Barca but pulled a strategic wipeout to let Barca through.

The second quarter didn’t have a lot of waves and so with 45 seconds Slater had that 8.83 and a 1.9, which he improved at the buzzer with a nice little barrel and an aerial 360. He came in to be mobbed by the crowd.

 

For the next heat I was running around handing out a phone number for certain surfers to call regarding a bachelor party for a certain pro surfer, and missed most of the heat. I did see Chris Ward score a 9.2 on a long Backdoor wave and move from fourth to first, with Cory Lopez coming in second.

 

Jamie O’Brien and Andy Irons dominated the fourth quarter, O’Brien scoring a 5.67 and an 8.67 on the second and third waves of the heat, and leading until Andy put together a 6.17 and an 8.67 to take the lead. Toward the end of the heat, Irons scratched into a bomb left – the wave of the day so far – made it to the end and scored made it and scored a 9.73 to combo the field.

 

Kelly Slater started the first semi with a 9.63, going right on a peak he split with Damien Hobgood. Rob Machado followed with an 8.33 classy left and all of a sudden many in the crowd had visions of hand-slaps in the channel. Slater had a solid lead in this heat which is a good thing because got caught inside at least twice at Backdoor, spending many many minutes of the heat getting punished down to Off the Wall as Roy Powers, Rob Machado and Luke Stedman tried to catch up. Slater did this twice, one on a good wave, once on a dumb wave and you have to appreciate all that he did in the final considering he got the tar knocked out of him for half of this semi.

 

Kelly had the rest comboed and he came in early and was being interviewed on the beach as the others fought for second, a battle won by Rob Machado, and all of a sudden it was déjà vu all over again, with Slater and Machado in their first final together since the famous handslap of the 1996 season?

 

The second semi was like a …Lost Greatest Hits video with Chris Ward, Andy Irons Cory Lopez surfing with Jamie O’Brien. Chris Ward put on a little T-street exhibition, hotdogging some smaller waves, going for barrels and 360s until the black humps on the horizon got him paddling like mad out to sea. Jamie O’Brien scored an 8.63 on a Backdoor wave and looked to be a finalist but couldn’t get a second wave, as Andy Irons and Cory Lopez put up several solid sixes to make the final equally balanced between regular and goofyfoots.

 

To give the semifinalists a chance to rest and regroup, there was a master’s heat with Shaun Tomson, Michael and Derek Ho, Cody Graham, Dane Kealoha and Tony Moniz proving that age isn’t an issue. These 40 and 50-somethings paddled out for a half an hour plus and thrilled the crowd by charging right and left, showing flashes of the brilliance that alchemized into the surfing of today.

 

As the legends came in, the future legends paddled out and Slater started the heat with a bang, pulling into a classic left barrel, then weaving through two long Backdoor barrels to put up scores of  9.00, 7.40 and 8.53 before the others knew what hit them.

 

At some point, Shaun Tomson came up to the media area with a bandage on his nose, looking both pleased with himself and in pain: “I broke my nose,” Tomson said. “I’ve never done that surfing. My board broke underneath me and a piece hit me. People up here just don’t understand how powerful and gnarly it is on the rights.”

 

As Shaun said this, Machado broke the nose of his board and came in for a replacement as Kelly’s brother Steven ran through the crowd with a backup.

 

By the halfway point, Slater had Machado and Lopez comboed and Irons was in second, backing up the recent phenomenon of regular foots dominating Pipe. Lopez and Machado looked styley, flowing through left barrels like Gerry Lopez, but those waves don’t compare to the long barreling rights and sacrificial pigdogs of Slater and Irons. It’s going to take a goofy foot who can dominate Backdoor on his backside to restore the balance of power at Pipe, but for now, the regular foots rule.

 

 

Irons scored an 8.43 but still needed a 9.1 with 10 minutes left, and it was looking like a victory for Slater to everyone but Slater and Irons: “You have to think if you’re sitting on 18 points, a guy can come back and get two 9.0s pretty easy out at Backdoor,” said Slater. “I honestly never felt comfortable with the lead I had as Backdoor is such a high-scoring wave.”

 

And he was right.

 

According to one of the water photographers, Slater and Irons were as close as two men can be without buying each other flowers for the entire heat. They never let the other get too far away and with the lead in the balance, Slater and Irons split a peak, with Kelly racing fullspeed through a right that had no exit, and Andy taking off super deep on a big left barrel that spit him into the aquarazzi at the end.

 

Slater took more on the head and Irons scored a 9.87 and was slapping the water as he paddled back out, tasting blood and Never Saying Die.

 

Slater then took off hyper-late on a smaller late and drove through it like a laser beam, to emerge at the end to the roar of the crowd. He needed a 9.31 to get the lead back, but was underscored, many thought, on this one, getting only an 8.73.

 

One minute later, with 1:19 left in the heat, Slater and Irons got into a paddle battle that Irons won, Slater pushing Irons even deeper on a Backdoor wave that lined up to heaven. Irons drove through it like a Mac Truck and claimed it at the end, because he knew he had scored a 10 and he knew he had beat Slater, won the contest and the Triple Crown.

 

And he was right.

 

The crowd was going berserk through all of this, everyone from Shaun Tomson to the bottle collectors knowing they were witnessing something special. This was an epic matchup between two Pipe masters, in just about perfect conditions. Beating a fired-up Slater in such conditions is a dream to everyone but one man, and today Andy Irons was the man. He came to shore late to be met by some of the Wolfpak. Bruce Irons and Kai Garcia gave Irons a shoulder ride to the podium, where he accepted the trophy and the lei and the $30,000 and the roar of the crowd: ““I just never count myself out,” said Irons. “I know Kelly is an amazing surfer, but he’s out at the same spot I am. It’s hard to put it in words [how I feel]. It worked out perfect. I fought back and then that last wave at the end the 10.0… Kelly [Slater] almost got it, and if he had he would have had me. He would have won. I’m glad that I didn’t back down at all.”

 

Standing near the podium, I saw Andy’s girlfriend Lindy, who was beaming with pride and shock. I asked her if Andy was that competitive at everything, and she said: “yes."


- Read about the five to watch at pipeline. Click here>