Billabong Pipeline Masters Preview
- December 6, 2008
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- By Story/Photos By TOB
The Billabong Pipeline Masters holding period starts on Monday, December 8, 2008.The swell forecast doesn’t look good for a Monday start, but it could go on Tuesday or Wednesday.
There are four east coasters in the event.Ben Bourgeois is from North Carolina. CJ Hobgood, Damien Hobgood , and Kelly Slater are from Florida.Gabe Kling is not listed in the heat draw, but there is an error in the draw as Ben is listed twice.This will be corrected.
CJ won the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at SunsetBeach and is in second place for the Triple Crown of Surfing Championship.
The Billabong Pipeline Masters will be run under the “Slater Format”, and although there are 64 surfers, the event will only take three days.15 local Hawaiian surfers and one Tahitian are added to the WCT Surfers.Hawaii law states that there have to be four man heats, so there will be two heats in the water, each overlapping.Each heat will have priority for 15 minutes, and non priority for 15 minutes.There are no 3 man heats to start, and no losers round as in a regular WCT event.A special waiver has been obtained to allow man on man heats for the semi’s and finals.
There were 1.5 million computers logged on to the O’Neill World Cup for the quarters to the finals.I would expect even more to be logged on for this event if the waves are good.
Last year Bede Durbidge won in small waves at Off the Wall.Andy Irons came back from being comboed by Kelly to comboing Kelly in great waves in 2006.