Paulo Bacellos wins Pipe! 

The final day of the IBA/USBA Pipeline Pro went down with twists and turns that would make any of water sports stand at attention. With a on sight crowd of 2,000 and 18,000 webcast viewers the IBA and USBA top 32 riders went for broke for the entire day!

The Surf conditions started the day with light winds and a 6-8 ft WNW Hawaiian size swell.  The early rounds saw major action with David Crowley (AUS) progressing to the quarterfinals all the way from the trails. One of the biggest stories of the day was Pierre Costes (FRN) who was injured during his round 8 win over Mike Stewart (HI), Damien King (AUS) as he progressed with Darren Halse into the quarters (ENG). Pierre who is just coming off a fractured patella in his knee was hurt going backdoor during this heat, landing on his back leaving him almost enable to walk up the beach. He was assisted to the beach to rest and lick his wounds. Later he opted to continue to compete and was able to win his Quarter final heat only to be stopped in the Semi finals coming in early in pain
From his fairly server injuries.

Heading into the semis there were big upsets and big performances. Hugo Pinheiro (Port) was able to take out Pierre and Ben Player who was having a great competition early in the day with numerous backdoor barrels. Also moving through the first semi final was Brazil’s Paulo Bacellos who had been surfing solid all day!

In the next semi final it was a dominant Jeff Hubbard leading the pack with the first 10 point ride of the day, consisting of a double barrel to ars. Following suit was Uri Valadao who was able to edge out his countryman Guilherme Tamega with a tie breaker going to the their third best wave.

The final was an all out battle with blows coming from all riders. Jeff Hubbard sent a warning shot with a huge ars at backdoor, followed by Uri Valadao throwing almost the exact same maneuver just after. Paulo Barcellos through caution to the wind with a massive roll on a close out section at backdoor showing true commitment to the judges. Jeff answered back with a big invert again at backdoor. Hugo Pinheiro choose to stick to Pipe in the final and with Paulo Barcellos picking off the best Pipe barrels of the heat, leaving Hugo with not much to choose from.

In the end it was Paulo who took out the talented field with Jeff Hubbard just behind him.
An amazing crowd filled with Brazilian/Paulo supporters attacked him before the official beach byte scores where released. During the awards Paulo said in Portuguese to the webcast fans online “it has always been my dream to win at Pipe in 12 ft conditions but I will take the win in 6-8ft waves just the same”. Congratulations to Paulo for the much deserved win and thank you to our sponsors Bodyglove Bodyboards, Pride and NMD for their huge support of this years event.

USBA STAFF

For more information please check out

www.usbatour.org
www.ibatour.com