Booming Barrels

Travis has a full on reputation for fearless charging when the need arises. He had that opportunity today as the swell at Pipeline continued to grow all day with a grinding swell and dropping tide over the most famous reef in the world.

Unfortunately for Travis, he came up against the most on-form surfer on the North Shore in Sebastian “SeaBass” Ziets who beat him in an incredibly close heat and went on to win the Vans Triple Crown Of Surfing.

SeaBass finished off with a heat total of 12.73 and Travis ended up with a 12.17 – not much in it, even though Travis got totally barreled in his heat. We’ll soon find out if Travis has qualified for the 2013 tour, it all depends on what happens during the last day of competition. It looks good at this stage, but things are still set to shuffle.

Jordy came up against CJ Hobgood in the firing 6 to 8-foot surf, and it was a low scoring heat, with Jordy getting two low scores and not enough to beat CJ, who finished with a 11.60. The contest is over for the South Africans so now it’s time to look at the rest. We have a Vans Triple Crown winner in the popular SeaBass who also wins the Nixon WTA award of a US$10,000 Nixon watch as part of his spoils.

A huge crowd favourite in the booming 8-foot barrels was Dane Reynolds, who scored a 9.5 in his round 2 heat against Kai Otton, and an incredible 10-point ride against Adriano in round 3 for a thick and foamy right-hand barrel.

Not really known for his Pipe prowess and admittedly rusty after not surfing out at Pipe since the event last year, Dane is still in the event and could pull something out of the bag as he has been doing throughout. “It was crumbly and I was trying to get under the lip,” said Dane. “It crumbled and I just got under the whitewash. I was deep and just pushed through it. It’s the first 10 I got out here.”

The two surfers of the event however, are Joel and Kelly. Both are in sync with this fast and grinding swell that has pulsed at Pipe for the last two days, both seem relaxed and at ease with their pressures and both are totally turning it on in the water.

The two surfers of the event however, are Joel and Kelly. Both are in synch with this fast and grinding swell that has pulsed at Pipe for the last two days, both seem relaxed and at ease with their pressures and both are totally turning it on in the water.

Joel beat local Kalani Chapman in round three with some excellent scores, and Slater beat another local boy in wildcard Billy Kemper (interesting to note that Slater won his first Pipe Masters in 1992 and Billy Kemper had yet to be born) with some massive pits, surfing both the Pipe lefts and Backdoor rights in his heat.

Kelly pulled into a thick left and chose to go hands-free after the drop and the judges rewarded him with a 9.73 for the critical drop to tube, and he followed it up with a crazy Backdoor pit into a massive gouge for a backup score of 8.90 and Billy was in the dust.

“Billy was really pushing me out there, he was showing that he was really hungry,” said Kelly after the heat. “It was great to surf in such good waves. It was torture watching the surf all day, and I really wanted to surf, so I’m happy that I got to surf in such good waves.”

The rain came down in squalls, the sun came out and beat down on the earth. There were people in raincoats and there were girls in bikinis. There were a bunch of guys pulling into death bomb tubes at OTW throughout the day, and the crowd cheering for Joel and Kelly alike was deafening.

The third option for the world title, two-times world champion Mick Fanning was eliminated by Shane Dorian in the final heat of round 3

The third option for the world title, two-times world champion Mick Fanning was eliminated by Shane Dorian in the final heat of round 3, and Gabriel Medina showed incredible form against Kolohe, showing coolness under pressure in his heat against Kolohe and pulling into two incredible barrels in their round 3 heat. Gabriel has shown that he has the full package, and there was talk of his rivalry against Kolohe as an ongoing element of the Pro Tour.

The charts are showing a pretty good day for Monday, and another really good day at the end of the week. At this stage it is undecided when the contest will finish, and we will know in the morning.