Saturday, December 12, 1998

Ho bowing out
in Pipe Masters

By Greg Ambrose
Special to the Star-Bulletin

As befits the most prestigious series in professional surfing, the last event of the Vans G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing will determine the world title, the Triple Crown championship, and the fate of several Association of Surfing Professionals competitors.

The Mountain Dew Pipe Masters will also be the swan song of Hawaii's most successful professional surfer, Derek Ho, and provide a platform for one of Hawaii's rising stars, Kalani Robb, to make a bold statement.

Five-time world champion Kelly Slater finds his path to a sixth world title blocked by a pair of young Aussie surfers. And while Michael Campbell and his good mate Daniel Wills are dead set on seizing the World Championship Tour title and taking it back to Australia, Slater has the advantage.

He has won the Pipe Masters a record four times in the past six years. Slater is in prime position to repeat history and with one victory win the trifecta of Pipe Master, world championship and Triple Crown title, just as he did in 1995.

But Slater also has to surf his way past Hawaii's resolute riders, including Johnny Boy Gomes and Michael Ho, who fought their way through trials competition last year, taking out the top WCT pros on their way to the final heat.

There they made history, with Gomes becoming the first trialist to win the Pipe Masters, and Ho setting a mark at age 41 as the oldest trialist to reach a final heat.

Now, his younger brother Derek is preparing to step down from the WCT after 16 years, during which he won two Pipe Masters, four Triple Crowns and became the only world champion from Hawaii.

He would like nothing better than to end his career at age 34 with one last Triple Crown title and a final Pipe Masters victory, and he is in a good position to do both. Ho was on fire during the G-Shock Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, flying through the air on closeout sections and absorbing the rough landings, showing no concern for the knee that was so hideously injured last season while he practiced for a contest in Indonesia.

After long, painful and frustrating rehabilitation, Ho is ready to finish in style.

"I missed out last winter, and I had to eat my heart out. You never give up; that is what I was taught, and that's what I teach," he said.

Robb, 21, is also eager to perform well at Pipeline and bring an end to his recent bad luck. Two months ago he found himself in a cast from hand to armpit, with screws, pins and a metal plate holding his wrist together.

He broke it while riding dirt bikes with Sunny Garcia on Garcia's motocross track in Kahaluu, and the injury couldn't have come at a worse time. Robb was a prime contender to win his first Triple Crown, and possibly even the $1-million bonus offered by Vans to the surfer who could win all three Triple Crown events.

The injury has given Robb a lot of time to ponder his future, a rare bit of introspection for someone so young.

"There is a message in this." Robb said. "I don't spend that much time with my mom and dad, so now I'm hanging out with them.

"I don't really have a life, I'm always traveling to compete. So if I have to get hurt to be with them, it's OK. I owe my parents for everything."

Robb's cast has been cut off and the screws removed. With the help of a brace on his partially mended wrist, he won a heat in one and narrowly lost out in the semifinals in the other of the first two Triple Crown contests, against his doctor's orders.

If Robb does not enter the Pipe Masters, Tim Curran and Guilherme Herdy could bump him off the WCT for next year. If he does compete, the worst that could happen is that he could reinjure his wrist, retain his spot on the tour and recuperate until March when the tour begins.

At best, Robb could win his first Pipe Masters and set a course for the world title next season.

"The other guys are taking advantage of me now, but when my wrist is better I'll pay them back."