Day two of the Pipe Pro saw some incredibly tricky conditions and priority tactics in action, with most favourites biting the dust early on.
After what’s felt like a short lifetime since we saw the opening round of the Pipe Pro, day two finally got under way, even under some questionable conditions.
It’s been a week full of anti-climatic waiting around on hold, as we watched the comp window quickly dwindle, and stresses about finishing begin to flare. But the looming call finally came with a green light for Round 32 and 16. The women are still yet to pull on a jersey for 2024. Meanwhile, the overlapping heats format created a pressure cooker setting for the second day of men’s competition.
Watching from the beach, day two of the Pipe Pro’s inconsistent conditions put most competitors through the wringer. It was hard not to wonder if many of the results might have been different had they run yesterday and invited surfers to sift through the big, unruly wash-throughs for the diamonds in the rough. Some surfers wanted to run yesterday. Some probably wanted to run away. Would fans have preferred to see wild conditions? Still, competition is about adapting well to the waves you are asked to paddle out in. No excuses for the big guns who bowed out on a day of major upsets, but there was a ‘What If?’ hanging over today’s proceedings.
The rocky start to the morning had the crowd in awe as favourites and Pipeline veterans dropped like flies, with Slater, Robinson and Ferreira all knocked out before we’d even hit 11am. Meanwhile Connor O’Leary hacked his way across Backdoor in a performance gamble that ended up paying off, due to the utter scramble for barrels during his heat against wildcard, Jackson Bunch.
The most surprising – and talked about – moment of the day came when CT rookie Crosby Colapinto managed to score a single wave victory against three-time world champion Gabriel Medina, in what felt like an exercise in both patience and pickiness. The younger Colapinto brother went nearly thirty minutes into his heat without scoring a single wave, only to end up standing tall as he exited Backdoor, simultaneously taking out Medina, who locked in eight incomplete waves and a measly 2.73. heat total. For once Gabby simply couldn’t force the rhythm in his favour, leaving Colapinto to bristle with satisfaction post-heat.
“I mean, I was against Gabriel so I kinda knew that I had to be on the best waves; I just waited,” Crosby uttered with a smile you couldn’t wipe away with a well-swung baseball bat.
“The ocean was kinda doing some weird things … I held out until I finally saw the wave that I wanted come to me, and I got a great score. To start out here, and make my first heat, and to then beat Gabriel is already massive.”
Colapinto laughed, “Me and my brother have dreamt about being on tour together our whole lives, now we’re actually doing it so I always stop and think, holy sh*t.”
Griffin Colapinto also left it to the death against heavyweight local Shion Crawford in their round 32 match-up. 18-year-old Shion, who is 6’3” and full of muscle, paddled Griff around the lineup for the first part of the heat, but the celebrated meditator had the last laugh. However, mindfulness and journals weren’t enough for Griff to get the jump on giant-killer Ian Gentil in the round of 16. The born-again Pro with the big frame and the unique lines, is rapidly becoming a crowd favourite.
The theme of patience seemed to continue throughout the day as competitors opted for holding out in the sub-par surf, leading to several buzzer beater moments including Yago Dora’s incredible last minute doozie against rookie Jacob Willcox. Willcox looked to have it all under control with a commanding backside performance, until he looked left for a moment too long and tossed away priority, allowing Dora to swoop. It should have been Jacob’s wave.
And, of course, a day at Pipe wouldn’t be complete without John John showing us just who know’s their backyard best. As he collected the largest two wave score of the comp thus far, the phrase “oh, yep, here goes JJF again” began to ring around beach goers as they were treated to a lesson in back-to-back barrels from the North Shore-raised crowd favourite. With Jack Robinson, Medina and Slater out, it feels like John John now emerges as a clear favourite.
Despite losing to John John in the round of 16, earlier against Seth Moniz Callum Robson once again displayed his gift for snuffing out gems. Robson grabbed a massive 9.33 ride about five minutes after snapping his board, having taken “that time on the beach to slow things down and try and just reset” before grabbing his second wave of the day and the highest single wave score of the comp thus far. Caltex boasted the only ten of last year and had the highest wave score on both days of competition at Pipe. He’s fast gathering a rep as the guy who knows how to find the best waves and capitalise on them.
As the day progressed and Round 16 commenced, you could feel the fatigue start to sink in. The scrambling chaos associated with the overlapping heats began taking its toll in the quickly deteriorating conditions. Pipe’s most-improved, Jordy Smith, was the standout of the afternoon, finding two gems in a heat where waves were sparser than a park on the road opposite Pipe.
While things began to draw to a close, and the afternoon sun took to glistening off the remnants of the days swell, the men’s quarterfinals had finally taken their unexpected shape, and beach goers and commentators alike began redirecting their pent-up excitement at the foreshadowed prospect of seeing the women having a crack at it sooner rather than later.
Quarter Finals: Ewing vs O’Leary, Smith vs Mamiya, Gentil vs deVault, Florence vs Fioravanti
