Billabong Pipeline Masters Day 1
Damien Hobgood Shines
- December 9, 2008
- 0 Comments
- By Story/Photos By TOB
The first day of the Billabong Pipeline Masters was run in very good conditions at Pipline. Light offshore winds and a slowly rising swell made beautiful barrels at Pipeline and Backdoor.
The start was a little hectic. The final heat draw came through at 3 am after people dropped out and heats were reshuffled. Ben Bourgeois dropped out. The heat draw changed. People didn’t know in the morning. Occy and Shane Dorian showed up for heat 1 to find they had been moved to the end of the round. Kekoa Bacalso thought he was in heat 14, but reshuffling moved him to heat 3. He missed his heat. Meanwhile, those who made it were getting great barrels and making the most of it.
The first round was mostly the Hawaiian wild card entries, with a few of the lower WCT guys. The WCT guys hate this format, because Pipeline Specialists put them out. 7 were put out in the first round by locals, and 5 more in the second round. Some, like Roy Powers, needed a good result here to requalify. Now they will be back groveling on the WQS.
Hawaiian, now Floridian Tory Barron, put out Royden Bryson, in the first round. Tory now lives in Palm Beach County. Unfortunately, Tory was put out by a near perfect Chris Ward who scored 19.9 out of 20 in their heat.
The other Floridian, or former Floridian, Damien Hobgood made it through his round 2 heat, beating North Shore Lifeguard and Volcom houses caretaker David Wassel. Damien scored some killer Backdoor waves, blowing out the theory that it is easier for a regular footer to go backside at Pipe than for a goofy footer to go Backdoor.
The contest is being held in the Slater Format, know known as the WCT Dual Heat Format. Two overlapping heats are in the water at the same time, surfing man on man. The first heat starts out with only 2 men in the water. They start with 20 minutes of WQS style priority, then the horn blows and the second heat paddles out. The first heat goes to WCT man on man style priority, while the next heat is in WQS style priority. The second heat can split a peak with the first heat, but the guys in WCT style priority cannot. The overlapping heats bring the 64 man contest down to a 3 day event with no loser’s round as opposed to a 4 day event with 48 men in the old WCT style. Expect to see more of this next year as the WCT tries to move to 3 day events.
I hope to see other regions unite like the Hawaiian Surfer’s Union to force the ASP/WCT to allow local specialists into events. It makes things much more exciting, and the best in the world should have to prove they are better than the locals.
Meanwhile, Hawaiian Jr. Pro Dusty Payne is putting on a show, making 2 round today in spite of breaking a leash and having to swim to the beach. Dusty beat Manoa Drollet of Tahiti and Heitor Alves of Brazil. He is the points leader in the Triple Crown. CJ Hobgood is in second place by 60 points.
We hope to run at least a half day tomorrow; a full day if the conditions hold. There is a storm coming which should blow out the conditions on Friday and Saturday. The holding period runs until Dec. 20.
Reporting from Oahu: TOB