With a poor forecast ahead and the waiting period ending March 9th, the Route 99 Hawaii / Bay Equity Home Loans Pipeline Bodyboarding Challenge presented by the Foam Company, ended this Tuesday.
With the Dropknee and Women’s Pro divisions already finished, all that was left was to determine the Men’s Pro champion. Again, in poor waves (for Pipe common high standards) at Ehukai Beach Park, North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. But be aware that this was not the first time a Pipe contest ends being run at Ehukai. It happened before, mainly because of bad forecast during the event window.
Dave Hubbard, Craig Whetter, Mack Crilley and Sammy Morretino were the early upsets as they were forced to leave the comp draw (due to their opponents response) by the quarter finals, despite the great personal efforts in the water. The semis went down also with great emotion and incredible performances.
In the first semi, 6x world champ and former Pipe champion Guilherme Tâmega missed the qualification to the final. Chilean Matias Diaz had the same destiny on semi number two.
In the final heat Tanner McDaniel and Jeff Hubbard (3x world champ and 5x Pipe champ) were absolutely on fire, entering a two-way battle and leaving Kawika Rohr-Kamai in third and Haven Ahn in fourth.
The Californian had been close but never had won the Pipe comp. This time Tanner got a good early start, scoring 7.00 points which he back it later with a 7.20 – his best wave. On the other hand, Hubb did the best score of the final (an amazing 8.67 pts ride) but needed a better backup (which was of only 5.33). After the horn, it was Tanner who was announced as the new Pipe Challenge champion.
Congrats buddy!
The event was run in memory of Don & Josie Over, and organized by BodyboardingUS and supervised by APB North America. Thank you for all who made it happen!
Men’s Pro
01. Tanner McDaniel (EUA) 14.20
02. Jeff Hubbard (Hawaii) 14.00
03. Kawika Rohr-Kamai (Hawaii) 12.30
04. Haven Ahn (Hawaii) 9.00
Dropknee
01. Sammy Morretino (Hawaii) 12.34
02. David Hubbard (Hawaii) 11.34
03. Justin Cadiente (Hawaii) 9.00
04. Mack Crilley (Hawaii) 8.43
Women’s Pro
01. Neymara Carvalho (Brazil) 11.77
02. Sari Ohhara (Japan) 10.74
03. Ayaka Suzuki Crilley (Japan) 9.44
04. Jessica Becker (Brazil) 7.00
