The Billabong Pipeline Pro wasn’t exactly one to remember this year. It wasn’t second reef roll-ins or those massive, spitting Pipeline barrels we all hope for. Still, the waves did show up and the level of surfing was incredible. Michel Bourez took the win over a very in-form Kanoa Igarashi.
It wasn’t that the swell wasn’t there–it just wasn’t great for Pipe. It did serve up a few gems at Backdoor that the surprising rookie, Igarashi, took advantage of all day on his way to the final.
Along his road to the podium, the Tahitian put World Champion (and now Triple Crown winner) John John Florence in the stables in the quarters. Florence was looking not only for the Triple Crown win, but for his first Pipe Masters as well. Bourez stayed wary the entire heat, knowing that Florence really needed one wave. “I was just trying to stay calm,” Bourez explained in a post-heat interview. “I knew that with John John, if a wave came, he could get a 10. Even if it the wave looked like an 8, John could turn a good wave into a perfect wave.”
Then came the heat that seemed an easy one to call: Jordy Smith vs. Kanoa Igarashi. Igarashi showed zero hesitation, staying patient and waiting for the right waves. It wasn’t until Igarashi found a Backdoor funnel that scored a 9.93 that he shut the door on the big South African, not only taking the heat win but pushing through a bubble-ridden Zeke Lau on his way to double qualification. Igarashi’s double allowed Lau, who was sitting at number eleven, on to the 2017 tour.
Soon after, Igarashi showed once again that he wasn’t bowing down to the vets when he beat 11x World Champion Kelly Slater.
Michel Bourez’s win puts him in a very elite group: surfers who have won every event of the Triple Crown.
