Epic men’s final for the Hawaii Pipeline Bodyboarding Invitational held during the weekend.
Legends like former world champions Jared Houston and Andre Botha were knocked out of the draw in the Round 2. Damian King lost in the Round 3 along with local legend Jeff Hubbard, a 3x world champion and 5x Pipe champion.
Even the current world champ, the Spanish Armide Soliveres lost in the Round 3. All of these early losts left a bittersweet taste amongst the boogie fans worldwide. Surprisingly, pioneers like Kainoa McGee and Chris Burkart made a very positive appearance in the quarters.
A word for the Portuguese shredder Rodrigo Lopes (pictured above) who pointed out one of the highest scoring waves of the event (9.17 pts – a powerful barrel to Backdoor), but even he lost in the Round 2 needing a score of 4.03 to advance to the next round. Lopes needed it to better his back up wave of only 2.20 points.
By the semis, the 2023 world champion, the Hawaiian Tanner McDaniel, one of the candidates to win the event, wasn’t able to surpass the performances of Hawaiians Mack Crilley and Sammy Morretino who placed first and second, respectively, in the semi 1.
The final heat was absolutely electric and very intense with all the Hawaiian riders doing waves on the excellent 
range mark. Dave Hubbard started with an 8.28 points, Sammy Morretino answer with an 8.43 and Mack Crilley with an incredible 8.90 points, taking a momentarly lead. Best wave for Mexican Alfonso Aguillar was his fifth wave, a 7.17 points.
Although, it was the last wave of Dave, a 9.43 ride, that confirmed the final result (scoring 17,70 out of 20 points) and the win for the multi time Dk world champion from Kauai. Needing a 9.28 to advance to the top of the heat, Sammy placed second with a total combined score of 16,20 points, Mack third with 16.17, and Alfonso come in fourth with 13.30 points.
On Monday, it was the time for the Pro Open Ladies, Pro Junior Men’s and Women’s, and Masters Open to get in the water and keep the action going.
Former world champion Japanese Ayaka Suzuki Crilley won the Open Ladies while Hawaiian Aarya Tabalno won the Womens Pro Junior. Peruvian Michael Yannce come on top in the Men’s Pro Junior while local boy Rich Cooper got the win in the Masters Division.
Until next year!
