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13/03/2005:// Pipeline's own Pancho Sullivan scored the victory of his life blitzing an all-Hawaii final and huge waves to take top spot at the Monster Energy Pro
Victory at the famed Oahu reef earned the thirty-one-year-old his first World Qualifying Series event win.
Third placed at last year's contest, Sullivan moves into sixth place in the world rankings.
Fellow Hawaiian Brian Pacheco was second ahead of 18-year-old Ola Eleogram and Evan Valiere.
The 35-minute final was an open affair up to the midway mark, when Pancho leaped to the head of the scoreboard with a hands-free backside tube ride at Pipeline for a near-perfect 9.0. At that point, no-one was even close to having had as strong a ride.
Eleogram, the youngest in the final and the biggest surprise in this event, suffered a horrible wipeout on his opening ride that resulted in being slammed against the reef, sustaining a gash to his head that later required five stitches.
Pacheco and Valiere fished around for quality scores but came up with average rides at best. Then Sullivan sealed the deal with less than eight minutes on the clock with an even classier 9.9 point ride, this time earned at the Backdoor Pipeline for a heaving stand-up tube that saw him exit with fists shot overhead.
"Just to win out here is amazing," said Sullivan. "It's something I've been striving to do for more than 10 years and now I've done it while enjoying myself at the same time. It's probably the most thrilling thing in life for me at this moment. It feels real gratifying."
"The level of surfing has been getting higher and higher and all the guys coming together from around the islands is resulting in a large group of top notch professionals. Today I was just lucky I got the right waves. With conditions being so challenging, there were some incredible waves that didn't look like anything at the start. There were some super intense, heavy waves going down today," he added.
The highest-placed non-Hawaiian surfer was Santa Barbara's Tom Curren, who announced he was launching a tour comeback. At 40 years of age, the oldest in the event, Curren surfed several strong heats nd was only nudged out of a place in the final in the closing two minutes of his semi-final heat.
Just one perfect 10 point ride was registered, surfed by Portugal's Tiago Pires in the fifth round. Tiago was eliminated in the quarters.
Welshman Nathan Phillips also featured in the early rounds of the Energy Pro.
The Quiksilver team rider was narrowly edged out of a third round place by finishing fourth behind heat winner Hawaiian Jason Fredrico.
Current WQS standings after 3 events. 1 Bobby Martinez, USA, 2,000 points. 2 Dunga Neto, Brazil, 1,720. 3 Nathanial Curren, USA, 1,706. 4 Mike Todd, USA, 1,614. 5 Ben Bourgeois, USA, 1,586. 6 Pancho Sullivan, Hawaii, 1,500. 40 Josh Lewan, GB, 827. 68 Russell Winter, GB, 623.
Cornwall's Russell Winter has had a superb start at the Buondi Billabong Pro in Portugal notching up one of the top four heat scores of the competition so far
Cornwall's Ruebyn Ash put in a superb performance to reach his second European Pro Junior final of the season
Skins "King of the Groms" Contest and Spencer Hargraves raise £800
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