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SUNSET BEACH, Oahu/Hawaii (Thursday, December 2, 2010) – Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro, 28, became the first South American male in 20 years to win the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach, since Fabio Gouveia in 1991. Monteiro is only the second South American male in the 28-year history of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing to win any event here. His victory today was worth $20,000 and major credibility. Today’s
30-minute final was hard-fought and far removed from the usual Sunset
lineup with head-high waves from a strong northerly direction forcing
surfers way up the point. The final consisted of Monteiro, Hawaii’s
Granger Larsen, and Australian pair Julian Wilson and Josh Kerr. Wilson
finished second, Granger third, and Kerr was fourth. The lead exchanged
hands multiple times between the top three before Monteiro clinched
it with a 7.87 point ride, his best of the final, for a winning total
of 14.37 points.
“It means a lot to me because I’ve been trying to do good in Hawaii for so long,” said Monteiro, who is from Rio de Janeiro. “I’m here in first place right now and I’m very, very happy. “It was really challenging today. I just tried to sit out there and I knew when the set comes the wave first breaks on ‘Boneyards’ out there deep. So I knew if you get the waves that go all the way through you can make some good turns. So I just tried to do that and it worked. “You
have to be prepared for every condition so I was prepared and ready
for small waves. I’m from Brazil so I know how to surf small
waves and I’m very happy.” For Wilson, this was his second final in as many weeks, having placed third at the first leg of the Vans Triple Crown in Haleiwa. Today he received the JN Automotive Group Rookie of the Vans Triple Crown Award for the top new talent of the series. “It wasn’t’ tough, I found my waves, I had a good heat,” said Wilson. “I had my chance to win and I just fell short. I felt like I surfed a pretty good final and it’s always a good feeling to come in from a final and feel like you had the chance of winning it and you had the waves. I’m not disappointed. I made two finals back to back and it’s incredible. “The rookie of the year was a great award. I had the final with Heath (Joske) at Haleiwa and it was his rookie year and I felt like we were going to have a bit of a shootout over here, and whoever was going to get the best out of us two was going to get it. It was something I was going for going into Sunset. Heath was very unlucky and didn’t get into the event so I felt a lot more relaxed about the rookie of year.” Despite
being eliminated by Monteiro in the quarter finals, Australian Joel
Parkinson still leads the Vans Triple Crown series ratings heading
to the final stop at the Banzai Pipeline. Parkinson is ahead of Wilson
and Monteiro. Al Hunt, ASP Tour Manager, has crunched the numbers and determined that an outstanding number of possibilities exist at present and won’t be finalized until the completion of the Billabong Pipeline Masters. At present, ASP World No. 28, Adam Melling (AUS), 25, is the safety cutoff because he cannot slip backwards past the ASP World No. 32 spot. Newcomers
challenging for seeds onto the elite ASP World Tour in 2011 are as
follows: 29
– Raoni Monteiro (BRA) With the tragic departure of Andy Irons (HAW), 32, all surfers vault up one placing, but as current ASP World No. 32, Gabe Kling (USA), 30, still has the potential to move up several placings with minimal effort at the Billabong Pipeline Masters, Wilson remains the target for all surfers looking to requalify.
Essentially, there are six surfers hunting four spots with results at the Billabong Pipeline Masters: -
Travis Logie (ZAF), 31, Dusty Payne (HAW), 21, and Tom Whitaker (AUS),
30, need a 9th or better at Pipeline to overtake Wilson, and a 5th
or better to overtake Monteiro. The third and final stop of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is the Billabong Pipe Masters, that has a holding period of December 8-20. The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing consists of three men’s and three women’s professional surfing events that are the final stop on the 2010 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour. In its 28th year, the Vans Triple Crown is considered the most prestigious title in surfing next to the ASP World Title.
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