Adriano de Souza wins the Pipe Masters and the World Title
BANZAI PIPELINE, Oahu/Hawaii (Thursday, December 17, 2015) - After what can only be called the most dramatic day in pro surfing history, Brazilian Adriano de Souza has clinched the 2015 World Surf League Title at the world-renowned Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii. In the process, he also became the first Brazilian to win the Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons.
Surfing for ten years amongst the world’s elite and setting the stage for the rise of the ‘Brazilian Storm,’ De Souza’s Title clinching performance came with a significant wave of emotions, as he dedicated the victory to fallen compatriot Ricardo dos Santos who died earlier this year.
“It’s an incredible feeling and so special in dedication to my good friend Ricardo dos Santos,” de Souza said. “I have this tattoo in memory of him -- he had the same tattoo that said ‘Strength, Balance and Love,’ and that’s all I needed to win this World Title. This is all in dedication to my brother as well, who bought me my first surfboard for seven dollars and now I’m on top of the world. What a dream to be a Pipeline Champion Master like Jamie [O’Brien] and Kelly [Slater] and Bede Durbidge, just so many names going through my brain now. There’s no words to describe how I’m feeling right now.”
The final day of the 2015 Samsung Galaxy WSL Championship Tour began with three contenders in the hunt for the world surfing crown - Mick Fanning, Gabriel Medina and de Souza. Fanning’s Quarterfinal win over 11-time WSL Champion Kelly Slater ousted Medina from the race, but a late big air maneuver from Medina in their Semifinal eliminated the Australian from competition, crowning De Souza the new World Champion.
Taking down an explosive wildcard in Mason Ho for a Semifinal win, de Souza claimed the coveted World Title after a loss earlier in the year at the Moche Rip Curl Pro had him doubting his chances heading into Pipeline.
“About midway through the year I thought Mick deserved the World Title more than me,” de Souza said. “He’s such a strong man and a three-time World Champ battling me for my first title was scary. I just wanted to give my best wishes to Mick and his mom -- I had such a mix of emotions, but the day of my life has arrived.”
Fanning came into Pipeline having won his first-ever Hawaiian event at the Vans World Cup of Surfing and looked to be the favorite to win the World Title. But after being eliminated by Medina, his Title chances were left to Ho who couldn’t seal it for the three-time WSL Champion despite Fanning’s incredible win over Kelly Slater.
“The energy’s been amazing walking down to the shore,” Fanning said. “I’m almost in tears every time I ‘ve paddled out and I’m just kind of going with the emotions. I had a friend tell me once that we can do anything and you just have to do it the best you can and stay true to yourself and things will happen.”
Claiming Runner-up status at the Billabong Pipe Masters for the second, consecutive year and the first Brazilian to earn a Vans Triple Crown of Surfing title, Gabriel Medina achieved a phenomenal comeback after a tough start to 2015. Turning his season around at the Billabong Pro Tahiti with a Runner-Up finish, the defending WSL Champion stood proud hoisting his well-deserved trophy.
“I’m really stoked to be the first Brazilian to win a Triple Crown - it was actually my goal coming to Hawaii,” Medina said. “This year has been difficult for me when I lost the first four events and everyone said I wouldn’t have a shot at the World Title. I’m so thankful to come here and be a part of the World Title race. I’m so happy to make the Final, it was a tough heat against Mick and I got the score I needed in the last minute and I couldn’t ask for anything better. I’m so excited for Adriano to win his first World Title and Pipe Master - I know he’s been dreaming for ages and he did everything he could.”
It was Medina who ended C.J. Hobgood’s final run at a Pipe Master title, earning a Quarterfinal appearance in his last WSL Championship Tour competition. Winning a World Title in 2001, the 36-year-old Florida native spent 17 years on the dream tour - giving fans and fellow competitors so many fond memories to look back on.
“You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with and I’ve spent the last 17 years of my life surrounding myself with, who I think, are not only the best surfers in the world, but the best humans,” Hobgood said. “I think this surfing platform is not just better than when I started, it’s 1,000 percent better so I’m happy to leave. The surfers are better, their characters and I just want to thank WSL for not only giving me this platform to speak right now but the stage out there to perform and do what I love. I’m fortunate enough that they work with us and continue to work closely with us, and hopefully it just keeps getting better and better because I’m going to be at home watching - so I’m going to be demanding the best. I just want to thank you guys, I’m stoked to get to work with Salty Crew now - thank you, love you...bye.”
De Souza’s 2015 Samsung Galaxy WSL CT Results:
- Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast: 3rd
- Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach: 2nd
- Drug Aware Margaret River Pro: WINNER
- Oi Rio Pro: 13th
- Fiji Pro: 13th
- J-Bay Open: 5th
- Billabong Pro Tahiti: 13th
- Hurley Pro at Trestles: 2nd
- Quiksilver Pro France: 3rd
- Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal: 13th
- Billabong Pipe Masters: WINNER
BILLABONG PIPE MASTER FINAL RESULTS:
1- Adriano De Souza (BRA) 14.07
2- Gabriel Medina (BRA) 8.50
BILLABONG PIPE MASTER SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 11.33 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 10.86
SF 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 6.83 def. Mason Ho (HAW) 3.83
BILLABONG PIPE MASTERS QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 11.67 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 4.67
QF 2: Mick Fanning (AUS) 9.50 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 6.17
QF 3: Mason Ho (HAW) 8.03 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 4.53
QF 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 5.50 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 4.43
BILLABONG PIPE MASTERS ROUND 5 RESULTS:
Heat 1: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.34 def. John John Florence (HAW) 9.76
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.07 def. Keanu Asing (HAW) 9.77
Heat 3: Adam Melling (AUS) 5.17 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 4.20
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.83 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 7.73
Comments
I'm not into conspiracy theories generally, but boy Fanning had a hard road through this comp compared to de Souza.
Having to beat Jamie O'Brien in an elimination, then in a 3 way with Slater and JJF, then into the quarters with Slater again and then Medina in the semis.
De Souza meets Jack Robinson, that was a tough one and just got through both times, but fark, he's a 17 year old future star, then Josh Kerr and Melling, then Josh Kerr and then a wild card Mason Ho. None of them are bums, I'm not saying that, but Mick faces the best pipe specialist of the moment, the best surfer ever twice, the next up and coming super star and last year's world champion, who although has a horrible style can find a tube and get out.
Da Souza is facing pop guns in comparison to Fanning facing cannons, and Fanning was the title leader and 3 times world champion going into the comp.
Hasn't surfing heard of seeding, like tennis!
Does anyone know how it worked out like that?
Oh gawd, just watching the semi final. Fanning knocked out by a 6.5 from a punt.
At pipeline, a punt scores a 6.5! It was a good punt, but blimey!
Just saying.
Im just glad the screw up of how points were divided at J-bay between Mick and Jordy didn't come into play, would have been terrible if he lost out by 1,000 points or less.
I was thinking same bloody thing. That would have been a travesty beyond belief.
Wasn't meant to be!
And his brother dying in the middle of the comp.
Bad luck Mick. Hope to see a change of luck for you next year.
Oh cruel. Da souza gets through his semi by Josh Kerr giving him what was the winning wave with 2 minutes left.
Hard to disagree with anything you said there Batfink. While Ads is a worthy recipient and a great sportsman and competitor, you can't help but feel for Mick getting done by the usual last resort all or nothing Hail Mary that has got Medina through so many times before.
Oh no. Josh Kerr had a good chance with 30 seconds left and stalled when he didn't need to, needing a 2.5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:-)
Ok, that's enough from me.
yep, the world will be a better place tomorrow ..... the mind numbing unimportance of it all
"After what can only be called the most dramatic day in pro surfing history"
......... Since the day before when the waves were pretty damn good.
It's a confronting thing for me, personally, when a Brazillian wins the world tour and I can't help but be disappointed. What have I got against Brazilians? I can't explain why, the only Brazilian I have ever met was a woman and I slept with her - so my personal experience of Brazilians is nothing but positive.
If I think about it, it is probably because the Brazilian surf scene and the players in it are so far removed from my own surfing life. Competition surfing has only been on my radar since the advent of livesteaming, and only then at spots with big long walls and big round tubes, and so I have no idea who people like Toledo are or know anything about De Souze besides that he surfs well, is stocky, and looks ridiculous in a hat.
The kind of erratic manoeuvres and air-reverses that the Brazilian surfers are famous for couldn't be less appealing to me. It's pretty disappointing to see a competition end on such a lacklustre note, especially given the conditions yesterday.
So I take it you're against a little lunchtime banter in the rec room Floydo?
Should we all just get straight back to work and focus on the more important things?
Just don't get it zen ... you're welcome to it, to the circus, the tricks and the huff and puff. Sure they are skilled & athletic but lets put it this way in musical terms I see it as pop music. Just my position zen, go for it if it rocks you ...
Jeez guys pretty negative reading.
Well done to Adriano. If he was Australian we'd be couldn't get enough of his 'Aussie Battler' story.
I mean he can only go up again what he's up against, whether that be waves or people. And lets face it he's been really consistent. You watch the fella get blown out of tubes at the box early this year and carve the piss out of 10 foot margs rights. He surfs Bell's just as well as most gone before and has worked out how to ride tubes in places like fiji, tahiti and hawaii.
Well done Adriano from an Australian
Onya Staitey. I just don't get the nationalism in surfing; good surfing is good surfing, a good win is a good win.
It's been said on here before but bears repeating. When Australian surfing was on the ascent in the 70s the Seppos thought we were loud, crude, and poor sportsmen, and now Brazil is on the ascent we're doing to them exactly what happened to us. So maybe it ain't a 'nation' thing but a 'human' thing; we get jealous when the 'others' are succeeding.
See the pettiness for what it is and rise above it. Entendido?
Stuey your man finally won. You have been a big admirer of his toughness and work ethic for years. It finally paid off and good on him. A relatively blue collar compared to many but has really put the time in to improve his rail game and tube riding barrelling lefts. If Mick didn't get there ADS was my man.
Ha...I don't care to see him in a free surfing clip but he's a great, hard-grafting competitor who's earned his title.
Fair enough stu, and I'll declare that I'm not a big fan of brazilians surf wise, it's mainly just a style thing with Adriano and Gabriel, but you can't deny they are great surfers, and as much as Felipe won more titles than anyone and probably had a claim to a world title, he hasn't proved himself in the big stuff, so I don't think I'm being nationalistic in expressing good wishes for Mick, and pointing out an amazing series of events that all came together to deny him the title.
In fact, that's quite a jump if your comment was directed against mine, but perhaps it wasn't.
Maybe for another day you can explain how it works out that Mick had such a tough road into the finals compared to Adriano, as the leading contender coming into the event. It's sort of important, in a purely non-important surfing sense, and given that tennis worked out a seeding system about 50 years ago, it's not to much to ask how it came about. Do they just draw names out of a barrel? That's sort of stupid for a sport that is hoping to get eyeballs on screens.
Or you could argue that the people that Adriano faced in his run were the equal of JOB, Slater twice, JJF and Medina. Or that a non-barrelling wave that didn't do much and ended in a spectacular punt that wasn't cleanly landed was scored so much higher than every other non-barrelling wave.
Or that Kerrsy was hexed by some curse and fell on a smaller barrelling wave that would have knocked Adriano out in the semis.
Or that Mick's brother dying in his sleep on the big day doesn't play into an amazing and heart-wrenching human interest story. Or that this wasn't a wonderful example of the sheer audacity of the situation, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, that chance plays such a huge part in all our lives, while we constantly convince ourselves that life is about hard work and struggle and that all things work out in the end, and get back to the grindstone, son.
Or you could simply say that Mick may have been overscored in other events and that this was some sort of karmic reckoning. I can't disagree with that, it's probably true. Certainly the year Mick won the comp and the title he got through the two final heats at pipeline on absolute smokers that came through in the last minutes.
I'm open to all and any discussions, just throwing it out there, and 'emoting' as I was watching what had happened earlier that day.
Yes, of course its all unimportant, so is most of what we do.
But chance, the Fates! This is a story Stu. Aren't you a journalist. :-)
Well done to ADS. He's been solid all year.
But that 6.5 to Gabby at the end of his and Micks heat was inconceivable. It's pipe and it's all about the barrel we are constantly told and maneovres are only going to count for a point or two and then the judges have a brain explosion and reward it huge even though he got way stuck in the whitewash. Then in the next heat ADS smashes a left all the way to the beach and gets a 2 something which was rightly so because once again it is pipe and it's all about the tube. But for some strange reason they forgot it was pipe for a moment and rewarded gabby big time. Having said all that I think mick has had quite a few controversial ones this year and other years go his way so maybe it evens out in the end. Kind of like a rough DRS decision in cricket that cost the kiwis a test series
I could watch those big barrels all day. I couldn't watch airs all day as the wave seems irrelevant. I had a feeling with the dropping swell and cross shore winds Mick was rooted against Medina.
"For Fanning and his family and friends, it would have been nice to use the sporting event as a response to their personal tragedy. That it did not happen means, in the end, nothing."
"There are bigger things for Mick Fanning to deal with. Deal with them he will, for he is a champion beyond the boundaries of sport."
Great words from Malcom Knox: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/mick-fanning-a-contemporary-hero-champion-beyond-sport-20151218-glqmh8.html
If Mick wasn't going to win I was hoping Adriano would get up. Stu I don't think it's Nationalism but a lot o Aussies probably feel like they can relate to Mick in some way or another. The blokes a legend more so for his little spoken of generosity rather than surfing feats.
Adriano on the other hand is one hell of a fighter never giving an inch and deserves the title. Comes across as an absolute mongrel due to the way he competes which happens to be effective but is nothing short of a gentlemen and humble human being outside of the playing arena. A well deserved champion that the sport can be proud of.
I cannot help but think this validates the argument that the WSL system at the moment does not produce the outcome:
the best surfer on the WSL = the world champion
It's all about consistency and 'safety' and tactics. I cannot see how this will expand the appeal - as the WSL would like to do.
Also, it's evidence for shrinking the competitive field for shorter running periods so as to finish during one swell. The conditions were unwatchable - really - unless you were an absolute surf competition fanatic.
Think about this, the draw Adriano had/WSL needing more viewers because no ones watching and there's no sponsors. It was always going to be an all Brazilian final, wasn't it? WSL need the brazilian numbers and thats the best way to get them. And what about pay for view ??
Bob, do you think more Brazilian viewers is really going to cut it? That is, bring in the sponsor $. There's already fan interest there but no-one really gets on board. The economy of Brazil, the wealth gap, and the way business is done there may mitigate against it. What do you think? It seems like the WSL is blinded by the population numbers without really paying attention to the underlying structures of this 'surf nation'. But what would I know? Perhaps the WSL commissars have thought of all that and hope to tap into the Olympic 'boon' when it happens - despite everyone knowing the Olympics does not = an economic boon but actually in most cases leaves a trail of destruction for local populaces, economies, etc.
As for pay for view - really? Who would pay? I am going to hazard a guess very very few people, certainly not enough to fund the tour and make it profitable. In many places in the world people pirate electricity - let alone sporting feeds.
Well done Adriano, you made it happen. Happy for you to get this title, glad you will now get some respect from the Aussies. For the Toledo doubters out there, Mick & Kelly were both suss in solid surf at the beginning of their careers. Fact. But let's avoid that little truth. 7 years ago I was saying Adriano would get a title, 4 ago it was Medina. I'm here to tell you guys that Toledo is the real deal. Watch him grow. Like Kelly says, there is no substitute for hard work and desire, natural talent on its own has proven many times to do many great men no good. Take note John John. Anyway that's my thoughts, condolances to a hero of mine, Mick, just wasn't meant to be, but man, you grew in legend this week more than any trophy could have done for you.
Stunet wrote "Onya Staitey. I just don't get the nationalism in surfing; good surfing is good surfing, a good win is a good win."
A good cricket shot is a good cricket shot, a good 3 pointer is a good 3 pointer etc etc. Cheering for your fellow countryman is pretty normal I would of thought, no harm done.
I think we're (Aussies) all hoping the Windies put up more of a fight come Boxing Day but I'm pretty sure most will still be cheering for the Aussies to win whilst appreciating good cricket on both sides.......
There's nothing more boring than "Aussie, Aussie über alles". Personally I have always found a real connection between Brazilian surfing culture and the Australian version. This from someone who regularly surfs at a (Sydney) beach with 40% Brazilian presence in the water. I like the focus on performance when most Aussie recreational surfers these days are so far into cruise mode you wonder if half of them are actually awake and/or give a shit about actually surfing at anything above minimal competence. The hunger of the Brazilians is a reminder of how degraded our own surfing culture has become.
Blindboy "There's nothing more boring than "Aussie, Aussie über alles".
I would of thought riding a mal would've taken that mantle BB :)
I'm with Clif ....
Have spent most the day stewing on today's result . What an anti climax to the greatest event of them all . Today's final was everything that Pipe is usually not about .
Good on Adriano , he played by the rules and did everything all year he could to succeed . He also seems to be a well balanced individual that only experience can deliver .
Onboard with WJ - Micks ' feat in this competition , infact most of the year has been nothing short of legendary . You can tell how much he's been working on his backhand tube riding . And anyone that's shared waves , meals , time on a surf trip as I have with mick or any other length of time , is more proof of the type of exceptional character he has become . Condolences Mick . People need to remember Yesterday .........
As for WSL .... Fix this mess . Total let down in contrast to yesterday . I think they have seeding but it reflects the rankings as per previous event .
Pipe is the Wimbledon of Surfing . And as such should be the same in that the event has sole responsibility for setting the seedings for its own event irrespective of the current rankings and wholeheartedly on determined form at such a venue .
That way trial lists are not first up matched against the top rankers , and this gives top rankers the benefit that their year has achieved but most importantly gives the best performers in the best wave , meeting each other in the 4th round / finals and not early .
Lastly reperchargers , the AFL has that nailed in their finals series draws . Succesful reps harpers must swap over to the other side of the Draw , to stop repeat match ups ....... Lastly Oahu legislators , if Pipe is what you claim to be " the greatest test /show on earth " , then you best give them more than 4 days . Shortening the field won't work .
I think I've given everyone a wack , evenly of course .....
Lots to agree with there Southey. I think the thing that was most noticeable in the Pipe contest was guys going up against the same guys they just met in a 3 way heat. Of course swapping the heat losers over to the other side of the draw is possible, and surely desirable.
But there are definite limitations brought about by the need to complete the comp in 4 days within a defined and fairly short period.
A nice, even spray there southey.