Salt Rock’s Bell and Sykes take on mighty Pipeline
The invite-only Vans Pipe Masters event brought some of the best surfers from across the globe to compete for a $100 000 cheque on one of surf's most hallowed stages.
Salt Rock’s Sophie Bell and Shane Sykes both took on their first Vans Pipe Masters, an exclusive invite-only surfing event in Hawaii last week.
The event brought some of the best surfers from across the globe to compete for a $100 000 cheque on one of surf’s most hallowed stages, the Banzai Pipeline.
‘Pipeline’ as it has come to be known, is on the north shore of Hawaii’s Oahu island, historically a setting for some of the sport’s bravest and most innovative surfers.
Flung in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian islands produce a series of huge breaks that rival the best and largest in the world, each season anointing legitimate chargers (athletes willing to take on big surf).
For Bell, it was the first time taking on Pipeline, with an invite to the event coming from strong reception to one of her Instagram clips in Indonesia.
“After posting a couple of barrels from Nias, I think they saw that I could handle the big stuff,” she told Vans before the event.
But Pipeline is a different beast completely and surfers faced waves up to 12-foot over the first two days.
The event was different to most surf competitions, with the 20 women and 40 men surfing two no-knockout heats each, with their best two combined wave scores counting.
The four best from each gender then surfed a one-off final for the prize money.
Bell gave a fantastic account of herself in her first Pipeline event, finishing 14th with wave scores of 9.8 and 6.7 out of 30.
It was enough to beat Hawaiian locals and Championship Tour regulars, showing her ability to compete among the upper echelons of world surfing.
For Sykes, it was his first time surfing at the event, but he had found himself on the Pipeline break before.
He recalled the “raw power, crowd and some of the wildest tubes ever” as fond memories when speaking to Vans.
Sykes could not get going during the week however, finishing 39th.
The women’s event was won by Ballito Pro defending champ, Molly Picklum (Australia), while American Balaram Stack took the men’s title.
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