Monday 20 February 2012
As the only non-Hawaiian in Saturday’s DK final of the IBA Pipeline Challenge, South African Sacha Specker was a clear underdog. He had been in a final twice before but never tasted victory, until now.
Spex sat slightly wide of the Hawaiians and went about picking off waves that were running along the inside reef at Pipe. “It’s an incredible feeling winning this event. It’s a bit of a dream still. I think it’ll kick in tomorrow, when we play the Aussies (New Zealand?) in cricket”, said Specker. Dunno if that was Spex or the writer who got that wrong - spike
The Hawaiians, Miles Kauhaahaa, Bud Miyamoto and Kainoa Mcgee, put on great performances in the rounds leading up to the final, weaving their ways through the tricky barrels at Backdoor and Pipe. Kauhaahaa rode the highest scoring wave of the event- a long barrel at Backdoor. Miyamoto had the highest scoring wave of the final-a long deep barrel at Pipe- punctuated with a cutback that threw buckets of spray over the back of the wave. He was unable to find a back up wave and came second to Specker by 3.91 points.
In an attempt to retain her world title at the end of last year, she went for an air roll spin over dry rocks and injured herself so badly she had to be helped out the water and could not surf for a month. Now, fully recovered, Isabela Sousa, the 2010 world champion from Brazil, won the Women’s 2012 IBA Pipe Challenge today, in fun three to four foot waves. “It’s my first final here at Pipe and it’s my first win here. It’s pretty incredible. I’m so happy”, said Sousa.
En route to the final the bubbly Brazilian won every heat. In her semi-final heat- already in the lead- she took off on a set wave, raced into the bowl at Pipe and landed a technical air roll spin. She won her semi-final by such a margin her opponents needed to replace both of their scoring waves.
In the final, Sousa defeated fellow Brazilians, Neymara Carvalho –the defending champion- and Karla Costa-Taylor- a three times Pipe champion- as well as Japan’s Minami Hatakeyama, a finalist in last year’s event too.
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