Honolulu, HAWAII (Friday, Nov. 26, 2004) - The second jewel of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, the 30th anniversary O'Neill World Cup of Surfing, got off to an excellent start today with a smooth north-west swell of eight feet. North Shore's Jamie O'Brien overcame torn ligaments in his left knee to post the highest heat score of the opening day of competition.
O'Brien missed the first event last week at Haleiwa, staying out of the water in an attempt to heal the injury he sustained during recent competition in Brazil. He set out for the event today to let contest organizers know he was still injured and would sit this event out too. However, after seeing the high quality of the waves on offer, he couldn't resist taking to the water. O'Brien advanced in first place from his six-man heat, along with Brian Toth (Puerto Rico) and Jarrad Howse (Australia).
"That was the first surf I've had in weeks," said 21-year-old O'Brien. "I was laying in bed this-morning with no intention of surfing, but my dad told me I should at least come down and let the organizers know in person that I was withdrawing. When I got here and saw the waves, there was no way I wasn't going out.
"My best wave was my second wave. I got barreled on the outside and then the lip pitched over me again on the inside and I was thinking 'oh no, don't hurt my knee'. I (wiped out) and just went down holding onto my knee as hard as I could and it was O.K.
"It's a little inconsistent out there, but this is about as perfect as the conditions can get. The waves are really forgiving and really fun. It's was so nice."
Twenty-five year-old Jarrad Howse had double the pressure in the heat against O'Brien, faced with the chance of qualifying for the elite World Championship Tour (W.C.T.) if he can secure a great result here at Sunset Beach, but also under the pressure of doing it in front of the watchful eye of his sponsor, O'Neill. Currently ranked 33rd on the World Qualifying Series (W.Q.S.), Howse looked right at home at Sunset, even though his experience at the break is relatively limited.
"Every year I've come here, O'Neill has always rented a house for their team-riders right at Pipeline, so that's where I've always surfed," said Howse. "But every day for the last week I've been surfing here. Today was pretty tricky though, there were waves coming through the point, and then there'd be the odd west peak also. There were a couple of times I got a bit deep and let guys go when I should have gone, so right at the end I kind of forced everyone else deep and a last west peak came through. I think that's what got me through."
Formerly a W.C.T. rated event, meaning that it is only open to the top 47 ranked surfers in the world, the World Cup of Surfing is now a W.Q.S. event, allowing more up-and-coming surfers, including local Hawaii surfers, a crack at competition. One of those was Myles Padaca, 34, champion of the event back in 2001. Padaca looked like he hadn't missed a beat en-route to his round two heat victory here today.
Along with Padaca, other hopefuls to advance from round two with heat wins included Bernardo Pigmeu (Brazil), a finalist in last week's Vans Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, Travis Logie (South Africa), Ben Bourgeois (North Carolina, USA), Fabio Gouveia (Brazil), Australians Daniel Ross and Kirk Flintoff, and Hawaii duo Ross Williams and Brian Pacheco.
If today's swell persists into tomorrow, competition will resume with round three, which will see the entrance of world champion Andy Irons (Hawaii), former world champion Kelly Slater (Florida), and Sunset Beach local Pancho Sullivan.
Two rounds of competition were completed today. The event requires three more days of competition for a final result.
A satellite feed of highlights from this event will be made available. Details will be circulated at the end of the event.
The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is made possible through the support of a partnership of the world's leading brands and media companies including: Ford Trucks, G-Shock, O'Neill, Rip Curl, Surfing Magazine, Surfline.com, Roxy.com, Oahu's Turtle Bay Resort, The Honolulu Advertiser and Fox Sports Net.
