Kelly Slater won the Billabong Pipeline Masters yesterday on a 5-foot-11 Merrick, a board many considered too small for the barreling, 6-to-8-foot waves.

Slater beat California's Chris Ward in the final and destroyed Ward's chances of winning the 2008 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing championship.

Instead, Australian Joel Parkinson won his first Triple Crown title after finishing runner-up three times before. Parkinson was eliminated from the Billabong Pipeline Masters in the fourth round.

“;It's been a good couple of days,”; Parkinson said. “;Today could have been better for me in terms of the event, but I am happy.”;

Despite the 27-year-old Parkinson's crowning, the talk on 'Ehukai Beach yesterday at the final event of the World Tour was Slater's board choice.

While other Pipe Masters competitors rode surfboards in the 6-foot-4 to 7-foot-2 range, Slater charged with relatively smaller equipment on the 12- to 18-foot wave faces.

“;Guys rode longer boards to catch the waves, but when you get on the wave, if you want to perform you need a smaller board,”; Slater said. “;You want a bigger board to be able to move in and out, but I just try to be super aware. If I see a lump that looks like it's going to move inside I try to be 5 or 10 seconds ahead when you can actually see the wave. So, I just try to pay attention to what the wave did before, where the wave hits the reef and what you saw before you dipped under the wave before. A lot of intuition and a lot of feeling.”;

Slater's board choice would've been a gutsy strategy for anyone else, but a calculated risk for arguably the greatest surfer in history. It was an interesting move, especially when the waves were chocolate brown and the tide was extremely low, making Pipe look gnarlier than usual.

“;With the water color, the waves are really dark and brown. It's a different sort of feeling,”; Slater said. “;It's not that pretty blue, beautiful wave. It's more ferocious looking when it's like this with the cloud coverage and winds. It's a real intense looking wave.”;

Throughout the day, Slater's surfing was intense, dropping massive scores in every heat. In the semifinal against California's Tim Reyes, Slater scored a 9-point ride on a Pipeline left and a perfect, 10-point ride with a Backdoor barrel within 90 seconds, winning the heat convincingly.

“;That's the beauty of Pipeline and Backdoor you can get those waves ... it only takes about a minute and half,”; Slater said. “;Timmy (Reyes) could have caught that right, but I played a little bit of possum on that and I sorta didn't look at the wave. I looked at him, looked out the back and acted like I didn't want the wave. When he didn't go for the wave, I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe he's going to let me have this wave!' “;

This was Slater's sixth Billabong Pipeline Masters title, sixth World Tour event victory this year and his 40th professional contest win. The 36-year-old also captured his ninth ASP World Championship earlier in October at the Billabong Pro Mundaka.

“;This is probably the best year I've ever had,”; he said. “;A lot of the work and a lot of the choices you make are outside of the water with the rest of your life and the rewards come in the water. That's really my philosophy.”;

Obviously, with Slater's victory yesterday at the Billabong Pipeline Masters, the last event of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, he chose the right surfboard for the day.