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Jamie O'Brien scored 9 or better on four waves yesterday and won a heat that included eight-time world champion Kelly Slater.
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Hawaii’s O’Brien has big day
He is so good at Banzai Pipeline he has to throw away a pair of 9s
By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Near-perfect conditions at the Banzai Pipeline yesterday for the first day of the 36th annual Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters allowed for several near-perfect performances -- especially by local competitors.
As a two-time finalist and former champion, Hawaii's Jamie O'Brien still described his first-round heat as, "the best of my life." O'Brien logged four 9-plus (out of 10) wave scores to win his heat, which included current and record eight-time world champion Kelly Slater.
Since only a surfer's top two rides count toward his final total, O'Brien tallied 18.86 points (9.63 and 9.23) after tossing two of them, but amazingly could have also taken his heat if scored on the pair of "throw-aways." Because he won, he will skip the second round and next surf in the third.
"I had a blast," said the 23-year-old O'Brien, who won the 2004 Pipeline Masters and lives at a house right at the break. "To throw away two 9s is mind-boggling. Hopefully, I'll meet up with (Slater) later on (in the contest), and get to surf with him again."
The longest-running and most prestigious professional contest in the world, the Pipeline Masters is the third and final jewel of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, as well as the season finale for the World Championship Tour.
Conditions permitting, the contest will resume today, but it has until Dec. 20 to complete its last two competition days.
With an international field that began with 64 surfers, the entire first round was completed in 10- to 16-foot-face waves that broke both left and right at the infamous North Shore venue.
Florida's Slater also advanced, scoring 17.14 total and a high of 9.47 to finish in second place in the four-man heat with O'Brien. Slater's high mark came after a deep and successful barrel ride in the right-breaking section known as Backdoor, as did both of O'Brien's highest scores.
Surfers who placed second or third have to surf in the second round, while those finishing fourth were eliminated.
"Not bad," answered Slater, the record five-time Pipeline Masters champ, when asked to compare the heat against all the others he's surfed in the contest. "I had to step up to try to catch (O'Brien). On paper it looks like he beat me by a ways, but it was really just a one-wave difference. And Jamie is arguably the best guy at Backdoor these days."
Defending event and overall Triple Crown champion Andy Irons won his heat with 17.50 total and a high of 9.17. The Kauai surfer leads this year's Triple Crown after winning the first jewel and placing third in the second.
Irons' younger brother, Bruce, the 2001 event winner, came the closest to total perfection in winning his first-rounder. He notched a 9.90 early in his heat, and then actually bettered it with the only perfect 10 so far for a 19.90 heat score.
"That was the first time I surfed Pipe all winter, and I didn't want the heat to end," Bruce Irons said.
Other heat winners included: Kalani Chapman (Hawaii), Tom Whitaker (Australia), Evan Valiere (Hawaii), Damien Hobgood (Florida), Hank Gaskell (Hawaii), Pancho Sullivan (Hawaii), Reef McIntosh (Hawaii) and Cory Lopez (Florida).
Australia's Joel Parkinson, the winner of the second jewel last week and in second place in the Triple Crown, was the runner-up in his heat to also move on.
Hawaii's Fred Patacchia Jr. was among the 16 surfers eliminated. After also making the final in the second jewel, the world's 14th-ranked surfer went down with 11.34 points in his heat.
Because of the prestige of the break and contest, instead of having a trials segment, officials for the first time awarded 16 wild-card spots to "Pipeline specialists." Based on criteria like regular, non-competitive performances at the break and results at a different Pipeline contest early this year, they were added to the 48, mostly WCT competitors to make up the draw.
And it seems they were solid picks, with five of them -- including O'Brien -- winning their first-rounders and all but two moving on to the second day of competition.
Also yesterday, the women's Triple Crown and WCT wrapped with the final day of the Billabong Pro Maui at Honolua Bay. Australia's Jessi Miley-Dyer won the event -- her first on the WCT -- but shared the spotlight with countrywoman Layne Beachley and Peru's Sofia Mulanovich.
Beachley lost to Miley-Dyer in the semifinals, but extended her own record with a seventh career world championship and her first since she won six straight from 1998 to 2003.
"This means I'm going for eight, and Kelly better not win nine," said the 34-year-old champ, always cognizant of her male counterpart.
After winning her first world championship in 2004, Mulanovich claimed her first Triple Crown title as the top overall performer this year in the three women's events. She won the first jewel and made the semifinals in the second and the quarters yesterday.
By also losing in the quarters, Australia's Chelsea Georgeson finished as the world No. 3 and ended her run that included the 2005 world championship and winning both the event and the Triple Crown the last two years. Aussie Melanie Redman-Carr finished as the world No. 2.