Enjoy watching history made by a great surfer – Orange County Register

Last Sunday became a monster day in the history books of surfing.

Marked as February 6, 2022. Kelly Slater, just five days before her 50th birthday, won the Billabong Pipeline Pro for the eighth time.

He did it convincingly, too, scoring two near-perfect trips for a total heat of 18.77 out of 20.

The first time he won it was 30 years ago. He is currently the youngest and oldest person to have won the event.

His victory came in big, and relatively horrifying, conditions, and against a kid less than half his age, North Shore’s Seth Moniz charger. Kelly had competed with Seth’s father, Tony Moniz, years earlier.

Just think how many boys younger than Kelly come and go with great careers in the books, and yet this guy just keeps going. Great. My wife, jokingly, please don’t take this too seriously, saying it must be some secret magic potion. Hey, if so, recommend some of them. No, recommend a lot of that.

I don’t watch a lot of professional events these days, but I do follow the results and occasionally, if the timing is right, follow the stream to see what’s up. On this day, the timing is perfect. Both my wife and I are in quarantine with the coronavirus and it was a Sunday without football (Go Rams, by the way). I watched the results of the event and learned that Kelly had made it to the quarterfinals, and was in the first heat.

I’ve known Kelly since he was a kid and (slapping himself on the back) predicted he would one day be world champion when I announced the final in Florida when he was 10 years old and won. Enemies Menehune Division. So I’m always trying and watching to see how he’s doing.

Not knowing if it was on, I went back to the recliner and turned up my old steam-powered laptop and dialed the link number. Oh, it’s there. And just get ready to get started.

Kelly completely nailed that first heat to a local kid in Huntington Beach, Kanoa Igarashi. Kanoa was born in Japan, but grew up and lived in Orange County and is an accomplished surfer. This is one of those moments when you want both to win, even though only one can.

For the next few hours, I was glued to the screen as I watched all the quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals. It was a great show with great, thrilling surfing. The heat where Seth Moniz beat John John Florence was breathtaking. My goodness, these guys can really surf.

The ultimate heat is Slater.

For the first part, not much happened. Both surfers are ahead and have no points. Kelly then detonated a roaring right barrel that gave him a score of 9 – out of a 10-point scale.

Moniz can’t compare to it, or anything close. But Kelly’s second point is just a point, so the door remains open. Until he removed it with a covered deep back door, the incredible fear relief brought him 9.77. At that point, it was over. History has been made.

No one can say this guy isn’t the greatest surfer of all time – he is.

After it was over, I was sitting there feeling so excited because it was truly a historic moment in surfing and so glad I was able to watch it.

Then I got a text from my old friend Gerry Lopez, “Mr. Pipeline” himself and a previous winner of this event. He said, “Remember when we were out there?” I had to laugh when I read that. It’s been 50 years since I entered this contest.

I texted him back saying that if I could do one of those rides where these guys get a 7 or 8, I’d scream at the judges that it really should be 300. He laughed, I laughed, and that was it. Go with two old dinosaurs who had their day.

Congratulations Kelly Slater. You are a enthusiast