The North Shore's first son takes a victory lap!
It was destined from the beginning wasn’t it though? John John Florence coming home to win the World Championship cup the last time it will ever be offered on his North Shore. Wait. I always get confused. Is Pipe still the season finale next season or does the new order take effect and does the season end at Karamas instead? Wait. Is it effect or affect?
No matter.
I knew John John was feeling it when he slipped into his very first wave of the day during Round 1 Heat 3. Did you see? He actually slipped. Oh of course the score was low, the judges always have pristine Pipe and/or Backdoor in their minds’ eyes and judge accordingly, not wanting to destroy the scale, but his very first wave. Did you see? He literally slipped down the face of the Backdoor wave into the barrel in one simple motion. Sideways then forward in a way I’ve only seen Jamie O’Brien ever do.
It was magnificent.
And I knew John John had this thing by the throat. Oh sure he had better waves in that heat, stand ups, coming out with the spit, even pumping his arms a little bit once in what might have been a claim.
Magnificent.
And I could also write about the very fine surfing of Josh Kerr, Jeremy Flores, Julian Wilson (minus interference). I could write about the abject failure of nearest-to-John-John-in-the-title-race Gabriel Medina but why? To what end?
John John won the event that first slip, that first wave, and nobody makes surfing look more fun.
Except Jamie O’Brien.
Billabong Pipe Masters Round 1 Results:
Heat 1: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 10.17, Jadson Andre (BRA) 6.33, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 4.67
Heat 2: Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.17, Kanoa Igarashi (USA) 6.10, Owen Wright (AUS) 3.37
Heat 3: Conner Coffin (USA) 10.56, Julian Wilson (AUS) 6.57, Stuart Kennedy (AUS) 1.50
Heat 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.57, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.43, Ethan Ewing (AUS) 3.00
Heat 5: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 14.83, Benji Brand (HAW) 12.64 Gabriel Medina (BRA) 12.43
Heat 6: John John Florence (HAW) 13.50, Dusty Payne (HAW) 6.83, Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 5.63
Heat 7: Caio Ibelli (BRA) 12.83, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 11.27, Jack Freestone (AUS) 7.04
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.47, Joan Duru (FRA) 11.90, Kolohe Andino (USA) 7.60
Heat 9: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 10.50, Filipe Toledo (BRA) 2.00, Michel Bourez (PYF) 2.00
Billabong Pipe Masters Remaining Round 1 Match-Ups:
Heat 10: Sebastian Zietz (HAW), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Ian Gouveia (BRA)
Heat 11: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Connor O’Leary (AUS), Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA)
Heat 12: Mick Fanning (AUS), Frederico Morais (PRT), Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Watch the whole four hours here!
Chris Dixon and Frank: please email [email protected] from the address you'd like your BeachGrit login on.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Na.
At second glance, that might be his daughter Tamarin.
the commentators …i have just started to mute the volume..i can’t stand this shit anymore
JJF for life… ‘merica.
Chas interested in your thoughts on Stab’s new podcast The Drop.
Stab can’t catch up with your work on Surf Splendor with DLS.
Help me out, chaps. Cash out, or let them run?
(It’s a rhetorical question. They’re definitely running. However, I would be a very rich man this year if it weren’t for my unrequited love for Italo Ferreira). https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Sell! Conner’s not going to unleash the secret turn at Pipe.
But he already won without the secret turn!
or did Julien lose?
You’ve outfoxed me there, Mo. I give up!
Can someone please tell Potts to get a bigger Aloha shirt? He’s busting at the seams with what looks like a medium – Aloha shirts are meant to be comfortable, not girdles for old dudes.
WSL if you’re listening can you ditch the 4 story high drone view? It’s the most unnatural way to watch surfing.
But please keep the long-distance voyeur cam of BL. Sort of Rear Window.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Affect is a verb
Effect is a noun
Just barely got away with it this time. Next time I’ll be all over you.
They are both noun and verb
I love how you only hit the dancefloor when the serious beats come on
Was Miggie claiming the high nine or the fact that he didn’t get drilled into the reef?
No matter…he backed it up and won his heat.
I do, however, believe that failing to mention Kelly’s triumphant return will come back to bite us all in the arse.
Something tells me that KS will have a say in the Title. He will take out Gabby and will subsequently post an IG picture of himself with an x-ray of his broken foot and JOB (holding a soft top, no less) claiming that Johns did…”okay”…and that next year’s wave pool event is going to be next level.
Kelly could pull Gabs in round 3 which would throw everything and everyone into a spin
Ewing, Kennedy, Kerr, Andre, Freestone & Brand are lower seeds than Kelly. Kerr has won, Kelly has won & assuming Medina wins round 2 and the others lose in round 2, it will probably be Kerr vs John & Kelly vs Medina. Kerr will want to win for his best mate Jordy. Although Medina generally crushes Kelly, it could be a Jordy world title.
meanwhile… jerusalem…
jerusalem… a superstitious obsession for three murderous retarded superstitions
hey hey d, picture this scenario… ww3, almighty abrahamic god decides to put in with the character and manage to unleash a very specifically applied apocalyptic war claiming only his billions of j/c/m souls and wipe’em out from the face of the earth at once, to live eternally by his side in wharever fucking fantasy realm it is… suddenly kinda 3 bill mouth-to-feed lighter, a bullshitless humanity can finally thrive…
can’t resist , what you describe with the Armageddon scenario , is currently what the secular’s are actually doing , as humanity is a bullshit state …take selfies for example…….ah ……climate change deniers etc
lol… i was checking my notes… Florence vs Ewing in Rd 3… so its Medina vs Kerr & probably Jordy vs Kelly n Rd3. i think it is the religious supporting the Armageddon scenario; particularly the Xtian-Right like Chas who think Baby-Jesus will save them despite their crimes
fuck that, I expected a proper rant on that one, you getting soft ol’ dee…
I see that you have been reading my Vatican/Colonel Sanders conspiracy theories…
Nope only my recipes. The 11th spice is kumen.
notice how Dusty barely tried? Next he is going to take out Mediina. Team Hawaii
That’s just how Dusty surfs in CT heats.
i guess we will find out if thats true in the next round
…oh, really?!
No one surfs Pipe like John John, unless you’re a WSL judge, then Jordy apparently is amazing out there too, his almost 9 was 3x shittier than every wave of Kerr’s
Nobody reports John John like Chas and I have this terrible upset feeling in my gut. Chas reports John John the way Breitbart reports Trump.
A surf article?!!?? Just kidding guys. Just read some diatribe about management and writing a book while laughing and cocaine. I understand people need to vent, and I’ll listen as long as at least every third article mentions water or a facsimile thereof.