Billabong Pipeline Masters

We finalized who the reduced field is, which unfortunately means the people who didn't make that won't be competing in Paniche and Philippines.

However, they will return to pipe at the end of the year, which is all worth 1.5 times the amount of points at the Lexus Pipe Masters event.

So we're going to crown champions, but we're also going to see who is going to re-qualify for next year's season.

This is where it starts to get really interesting just with how much pressure was on the Lexus Trestles Pro.

The stakes are really high.

If you don't make the postseason after your heat at Lowers, you will return for the Pipe Masters.

It's going to be that much harder to keep your spot on tour.

So it's not over yet.

Oh, my God.

After the Pipe Masters win.

Icon.

Yeah.

I remember cause I was a, I was a magazine editor and I'd profiled him at the time when he was sort of trying to come back and he was massive, you know? There's some surfing footage of him and he still managed to surf pretty well with his big body.

But when he came back, he'd just been training kind of secretly and suddenly he turned up in Hawaii at the Pipeline Masters and he just looked like a triathlete.

You know, he was just cut and fit and everyone just did a double take because everyone knew this guy.

cautionary tale of the child star who crashed and burned.

Spend some time at Pipeline.

Try to make it to the Pipe Masters.

Sick.

And obviously the Cloudbreak Trials.

So it's not a guarantee that you're going to get a good result.

And yeah, despite Steph having great results right there in the past, especially winning her most recent world championship there, I think it's something that, you know, she has her, her eye on and I think another major factor too is that you know we're hitting the postseason and if you're not at that number 14 you're not surfing in those events that are in the Philippines and of course I think one of our personal favorites over in Perniche Portugal so don't want to depend on just the result over there at the Pipe Masters either Dave

yeah well who do you have for your your second loser coming out of there Mitch

yeah I mean next on segue to your same point too to me it's the former world champions on the women's side you know outside of Carissa Moore everyone lost out in round two or earlier tyler molly and of course we got to be talking about you know the great stephanie gilmore too but to me i i think the most surprising one was molly pickham considering you know that she won a world title there last year um i thought she was one of the standouts in the free surfs i think caroline marks also had a super wave star feed uh yeah just very unfortunate in that sense too but uh once again you got to be able to surf the heat that's in front of you.

And I'm telling you, you know, heading in the lowers where he's already won.

That's where he won his last world championship tour.

And especially with the Pipe Masters format coming back.

I'm excited to see what this guy's going to do in the last four or five events of the season, considering that he's the guy, really, in my opinion, to beat at the majority of those events right there.

And then after the pipe one, like even after pipe, I don't think we talked much.

And then I think after he won, he won pipe for the first time, like his first pipe masters win.

And then there was like a Christmas Day swell and I paddled out to Pipe and he was out there.

And I just paddled out and just told him like, congrats.

Like, because I'd realized like, I've known he's wanted that world title.

I mean, that Pipe Masters title

for

so long.

suddenly.

I do have plans to go Pipe Masters.

No, I don't know.

But we literally said this two, three days ago.

We were like, right, Pipe Masters, which is a surf comp in December.

Yeah, I

know exactly where it is because that's the beach that they put me on.