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<\/p>\nO’Brien Wins ASP WQS 5-Star Volcom Pipeline Pro<\/p>\n
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PIPELINE, Oahu\/Hawaii (Monday, February 1, 2010) – Prayers, plundered surfboards and Pipeline perfection were the order of the final day of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 5-Star Volcom Pipeline Pro, and local boy Jamie O\u2019Brien avoided the drama to walk away with the win. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, 26, clinched his third Pipeline Pro title today to take home $16,000 and 2,000 ASP WQS ratings points. Surf for the final day was in the range of 10-15-foot wave face heights.<\/p>\n
Australian pair Anthony Walsh and Mark Mathews were second and third respectively in the final, both breaking surfboards and forced to swim to the beach during the 45-minute bout. Fourth place was Hawaii\u2019s Danny Fuller, who posted the day\u2019s only perfect 10 during his semi-final heat but was unable to exit several deep tubes in the final that might have scored the same.<\/p>\n
Two high scores – 8.77 and 8.23 – sealed the deal for O\u2019Brien, giving him a two-wave total of 17.0 out of a maximum 20.The highest scoring ride in the final actually belonged to Mathews, who was runner-up to O\u2019Brien here at this same event back in 2007. Despite a horrible start to the heat, Mathews regrouped on a backup board and ended up splitting a peak with O\u2019Brien on the best wave of the final. Mathews opted for the Backdoor, O\u2019Brien took Pipe. Mathews\u2019 was a super deep and long barrel, while O\u2019Brien\u2019s looked bigger but didn\u2019t travel as far. Mathews was right back in the game with a 9.57 after that, but never managed to secure the second score he needed of 7.43, counting a 4.57 in its place.<\/p>\n
“I thought I had a good wave and then I heard his score!” said Jamie, of the near-perfect score Mathews got going right on the wave they split. <\/p>\n
“I love Pipeline. I kind of talk to it out there. You might think I\u2019m crazy, but I just started praying it was going to go flat in the end, and Mark looks and me and says, \u2019I bet you\u2019re praying that it\u2019s going flat\u2019, and I was like, yeah! (Laughs.)<\/p>\n
“Mark was in the running. I\u2019ve surfed with him out here before, he\u2019s a great surfer, he was ripping. But it\u2019s kind of funny, every time you think you have it, you don\u2019t have it. I didn\u2019t think I had it even with 10 seconds (to go). <\/p>\n
“It\u2019s my passion, year in and your out here, I just like surfing this wave. My goal is to win as many Pipe contests as I can and there\u2019s only a few chances every year. I got one more, so I\u2019m stoked.”<\/p>\n
MARK MATHEWS:
\nMathews felt deserted by the ocean that had answered Jamie\u2019s prayers and failed to produced any more quality rides.<\/p>\n
“I was so disappointed,” said Mathews. “After I got that 9.5 I thought for sure I could get this. It was only a (7.43) I needed and there were plenty of them at the start of the heat. I still had 10 minutes by the time I got out the back, but nothing came through. The waves just went flat.<\/p>\n
“I had a shocking start to the heat. I was getting smashed. I lost my board, took a couple of bad waves, got washed in a couple of times. But I knew that I was always in there. It only takes one wave to get you back in the heat and I got it, but I just needed one more little one and it didn\u2019t come through.<\/p>\n
“From here, I\u2019m just going to chase big waves. We\u2019re shooting a documentary on me and one of my best mates, Richie Vass, and I\u2019d just like to do enough WQS events so I can get into the Triple Crown, which is my favorite competition.”<\/p>\n
ANTHONY WALSH:
\nSecond placed Anthony Walsh shared Mathews\u2019 disappointment. With scores of 7.5 and 7.37, it was all about the one that got away: the biggest wave of the final that Walsh took a gamble on but lost, getting clipped in the barrel, and then breaking his board.<\/p>\n
“I knew I was probably only going to get one chance and I got that really good one,” said Walsh. “It looked like it was going to be a short barrel so I had to really wait as long as I could at the bottom (of the wave after takeoff) to get as deep as I could and get a big score. Either way, it was a 50\/50 and it didn\u2019t pay off, but second\u2019s still really good and I\u2019m stoked.<\/p>\n
“I was definitely hoping for first because an international first place was a spot into the Pipe Masters, so second place doesn\u2019t cut it. But still, to get second to Jamie O\u2019Brien, he\u2019s the best guy out here, so I\u2019m happy with that. He just knows the wave so well. He knows were to sit and today he showed it. He got those two Backdoor ones that actually didn\u2019t look like much, and he got the scores. <\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t really do the WQS but 1500 points is kind of a scorer, so I\u2019ve got to think about maybe doing a few events. The Australian leg\u2019s coming up and there\u2019s some good 6 star events there. I\u2019ll see how I go in them and make a call from there.”<\/p>\n
TODD CHESSER MEMORIAL AWARD TO DAVID WASSEL:
\nAlong with the final placings, the perpetual Todd Chesser Memorial Award was presented today, awarded to Pipeline charger, North Shore lifeguard, and perennial goodwill ambassador David Wassel. Wassel certainly charged in this event, narrowly losing in the quarter finals.<\/p>\n
“This award is for the surfer who charges from the heart and embodies great spirit,” said Jeannie Chesser, Todd\u2019s mom, during a moving presentation. “And that\u2019s Dave Wassel.” <\/p>\n
BARLEY BAILS WITH BEST SCORE OF THE COMPETITION:
\nThe Cinderella story of North Carolina\u2019s Brett Barley ended in the semi-finals, but he departs Pipeline with the satisfaction of having earned the highest heat score of the entire competition: 19.67 out of 20 in round 2. Barley lost to Mathews, Fuller, and Kiron Jabour (Hawaii) in the second semi-final today to place equal 7th overall.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve come this far and it\u2019s only the first Pipe contest I\u2019ve ever done, so I\u2019ve got many more,” said Barley. “I\u2019m just stoked to make it this far. It\u2019s been good, no hard feelings, I\u2019m not bummed at all.<\/p>\n
The highlight? “My first heat, on the first wave of a contest I\u2019ve never done (before) and I got a 10… I\u2019m still over the top about that. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s really sunk in yet. To end up with the highest heat score at a Pipe contest, that definitely feels good and I\u2019m happy.<\/p>\n
The Volcom Pipeline Pro was a super North Shore success story. Big, challenging surf over all four days of competition more than a couple of days of true Pipe perfection world class rides and nightmarish wipeouts and 27 broken surfboards that were a symbol of total commitment and grandiose entertainment.<\/p>\n
For complete results: www.volcompipelinepro.com\/results\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
O’Brien Wins ASP WQS 5-Star Volcom Pipeline Pro PIPELINE, Oahu\/Hawaii (Monday, February 1, 2010) – Prayers, plundered surfboards and Pipeline perfection were the order of the final day of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS) 5-Star Volcom Pipeline Pro, and local boy Jamie O\u2019Brien avoided the drama to walk away with … Continue reading “O’Brien Wins ASP WQS 5-Star Volcom Pipeline Pro”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asp-surfing-news","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}