It’s always a weird feeling at the end. Familiar faces dwindle as the contest circuit slowly fades out of the North Shore. Right on Cue, the waves leave with it and the Kona Winds arrive. You can feel the end in the air.
With the end comes reflection though and despite the literal ups and downs of Triple Crown swells, this season offered up quite a bit to reflect on.
After the local hero won the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, the rest of pack followed Joel Centeio to Sunset Beach for the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing.
So began two weeks of some of the most interesting swell conditions I have ever seen. 20 foot close outs would greet us one morning while the very next day flattened out for lay day after lay day. In between the tricky conditions, competition continued to impress the hundreds of spectators on the beach.
The highlight of the event would definitely go to the Gudauskas brothers. While Pat already qualified for the tour, younger brother Tanner had a chance to join him if with a solid result at Sunset.
After a very impressive display of back hand surfing in huge, all over the place Sunset, Tanner made his way through the event until it came down to one more heat. Lucky for him, the heat he needed to make also held both of his brothers. Needless to say, Tanner made the heat and qualified for the WCT next year.
On the last day of the two week waiting period, Joel Parkinson took down Mick Fanning and Sunny Garcia for the win in the best surf of the event.
Sunny’s final appearance put him as the front runner for the triple crown title headed into Pipe.
The biggest swell of the winter would delay the Pipe showdown for a few days and allow the prestigious Eddie Aikau memorial contest to take place at Waimea Bay. 20-25 foot Waimea is always an amazing sight, especially when the best big wave surfers in the world are all battling for one of the most coveted trophies in surfing.
After Kelly Slater’s near perfect score in an early morning heat, no one thought he could be touched as the day went on. Mother Nature decided to make things interesting though, and the later afternoon heats saw the biggest most consistent surf of the day. Greg Long was in the right spot for some of the bigger drops of the day and took the win.
After seeing the thousands of spectators lining Kam Highway for the Eddie, the Pipe Masters almost lost some flair. Luckily the world title was still on the line and the race for the Triple Crown was heated.
The opening rounds were greeted with 4-5 foot barrels and some solid surfing as the “pipe specialists” impressed the packed beach. Drama hit the beach hard when Sunny Garcia turned up about 5 minutes too late for his heat. Torrey Meister was paddling out as his replacement as Sunny raced to check in.
Although he was placed as the first alternate, Sunny never got his chance to secure the Triple Crown that seemed to be his for the taking. The waves took over the show as the second day of competition saw some of the best waves the tour has seen in a long time.
Pipe and Backdoor lit up all day as a handful of ten point rides went down while running the dual heat format. Everyone seemed to enjoy having four surfers in the water at a time.
Parko needed to advance through his third round heat in order to keep his title hopes alive, but as Gavin Gillette was spat out of one of the better Pipeline waves of the day, Joel’s crushing collapse was finally over and Mick Fanning became the 2009 world champion.
Parko’s results were good enough to earn him the Triple Crown title and Taj Burrows made his way through pumping Pipe to take down Kelly Slater in a lackluster final.
The event couldn’t have ended soon enough as the winds and the waves got worse and worse over the rest of the waiting period.
After a few days of celebration, the end of it all really hits. Most of the QS guys are long gone and the lack of waves sent a lot of the CT guys out of here as well. Work continues for a select few as the final touches of a successful webcast are finalized.
With a little more free time and less waves, things like skydiving and hiking through bamboo forests become way more appealing (as if they weren’t enough in the first place).
The amazing lifestyle of our sport is in full effect here and will continue to be long after the last Triple Crown straggler leaves the island. What may be the end for the Triple Crown season is the beginning for the best part of the year for the locals.
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