World Championship Tour events at the Banzai Pipeline are exciting more often than not and, just occasionally, they are incredible.
The pointy end of the Lexus Pipe Pro last week was the latter, perhaps even surpassing the waves and performances at the 2022 Pipe Pro.
A contributing factor in the rampant incredulity was the fact that the swell and wind forecast had looked dire for the whole event window, and that for most of the first week it was even worse than that. And then, at the last possible juncture, the wind went offshore, the swell jumped up out of a better direction for Pipe as well as Backdoor, and a sandbar over the reef which had been blocking the lefts suddenly disappeared. The stage was set for a finish for the ages.
Another factor which inevitably brought the comparisons with the vintage event of 2022 was the role of Kelly Slater, not just in a cameo for old time’s sake, but as a potential winner, three years on from the last time he broke all the age barrier records to win Pipe a week short of his 50th birthday.
As Swellnet’s Steve Shearer wrote of Big Friday, day three of the contest: “A 52-year old retired Kelly Slater who looked pale and, by his own admission, out of shape, and who hadn’t set feet into wax for over a month was able to aggressively eliminate a man half his age who is currently third in the world. Rookies who less than 12 months ago were complete no names outside of their local boardriders were able to oust veteran tour surfers and top fivers. It was magic from start to finish.”
Indeed it was, in true waves of consequence, not so much for wave height but for the thick, grinding intensity of the sets which feathered on Third Reef and thundered in to deliver full power on the shallow inside reef. There were many significant stories emerging from this and a much smaller finals day, but first, let’s deal with the GOAT in the room.
As Brother Shearer noted, Kelly didn’t look fit (he’d been holidaying in Florida with the extended family, including new son and grown daughter), nor did he seem particularly focused, but Pipeline on days like this still has his name written all over it, even a week short of his 53rd birthday. Following his win in scrappy conditions in the first round, he took another week off, re-emerging as the new swell neared its peak, and taking out Bali’s Rio Waida fairly comprehensively. A low rumble started to emanate from media stations around the world. Could he? Yeah, nah. Then in the round of 16 he humbled world title contender Ethan Ewing with perfect timing in the barrel for a near-eight followed by a nine-plus. The rumbles grew louder. The old fart was into another finals’ day.
What few people realised when Kelly Slater brushed away a tear at the end of his post-heat round of 16 interview, mentioning his beautiful baby boy, was that another matter of high emotion was weighing on him – the recent loss of his friend and mentor, Quiksilver founder Alan Green. Green, who died last month, was farewelled at a memorial function in Geelong last Sunday, and Kelly had promised family members that if he was out of the running at Pipe, he would jump on a plane and be there. Now he’d be surfing the quarter finals on that day.
Of course when you’re a professional athlete you go with the game and everyone understands, but Slater’s career-long association with the Quiksilver brand meant that he had “family” virtually wherever he competed, and none was more important than “Greeny”, wife Barb and their family in Torquay during the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.
As it turned out, the crazy dream ended the next morning when Kelly missed a couple of late-heat opportunities to take down Brazil’s reborn Ian Gouveia and bowed out at equal ninth. But once again Kelly proved you can never write him off.
Of the rookies who took out contenders on the big day, two stand out. Mexico’s exciting and excitable Al Cleland Jr squeaked past Jack Robinson despite the fact that Jack scored a perfect 10 for arguably the best wave ridden all day. Freefalling down the face of a Backdoor bomb, he held on to conquer an unmakeable barrel, but couldn’t do better than a 2.17 backup, the result of failing to emerge from another barrel that would have delivered an excellent score.
Manly’s George Pittar showed he means business, taking down Griffin Colapinto in the round of 32 and Kanoa Igarashi in the 16. Gutsy and talented, watch this space, but his Pipe dream ended in the quarters when he fell to Leo Fioravanti after the Italian’s trademark priority scuffle at the start.
Speaking of whom, Leo finally ended Gouveia’s run to land a well-earned spot in the final against defending event champ Barron Mamiya, who had been on fire taking out Italo Ferreira in the semis. I’m a Leo fan and have been for over a decade since my good mate Belly married his mum and inherited the feisty teenager, but connections aside, no one can doubt the guy’s mature ability in serious barrels. Mamiya, however, was on fire, and had Leo staring at an impossible combo with half an hour still to run.
But the Italian answered back with two deep, deep barrels, and I thought, took the final by a whisker. The judges called it a tie and gave it to Mamiya on highest single wave score. What a final!
In the women’s Tyler Wright answered the question, has she still got it, with an emphatic YES! But the heat of women’s finals day was between the two firebrands of women’s surfing, Caity Simmers and our Pickles, an absolute feast of threaded barrels. Just brilliant to watch.
Like almost all of the last two days of Pipe 2025.
