Gallery: The Pipe Trials (day one)

All photos by Tom Carey Today, the finalists were decided for the Billabong Pipe Masters Trials. You’ve no doubt already read that this year, instead of gifting 16 local wildcard spots straight into the main event, the ASP are holding a Billabong Pipe Invitational, aka trials event, with ‘Hawaiian Pedigree’ a prerequisite for the majority of competitors. What that means is the two trials winners will be the only Hawaiian wildcards. And neither of them will be Bruce Irons, despite the event being in memory of his brother, Andy, because BI didn’t get a start in either the main event or trials. He took to Instagram earlier today to air his frustrations over this – the sentiment of which was along the lines of “there is no room for me in their contest which is in memory of my brother who is on every poster every T-shirt every hat and every banner for this contest” – but it was promptly removed. So, after today, those two trials winners could now be any combination of: Jamie O’Brien, Reef McIntosh, Makai McNamara and Hank Gaskell. “I think the competitors are looking at me like, ‘Oh I have to surf against Jamie’. But I’m looking at them like, ‘Oh I have to surf against all these great surfers’,” said Jamie O’Brien. “These guys all surf Pipe all the time and it’s a great field of surfers in the trials. It’s going to be a showdown, whoever gets the best waves will be in the main event.” Find out what happens in the morning, here. Alex Smith looks more comfortable under heaving Backdoor than he does onstage with the Globe team. Billy Kemper and le guillotine. That’s a bad time, right there. Danny Fuller chanels Gerry Lopez (eh? eh?) Ian Walsh, not at Jaws. Dude’s Peahi game: Strong. He’s obvs solid at Pipe, too. Kai Barger sitting v pretty. Pending a few key occurrences at Pipeline over the next few days, Keanu Asing is totally now on tour! Next year he won’t need to worry about no trials. Ola Eleogram 1, and… …Ola Eleogram 2. Look at this thing, would you? Zeke Lau takes Backdoor, and Jamie O’Brien takes Pipeline. Zeke then chooses Pipe. How good would standing in this thing feel? Pipe Masters Invitational Final: Reef McIntosh (HAW), Jamie O’Brien (HAW), Makai McNamara (HAW), Hank Gaskell (HAW) Men’s Pipe Masters Invitational Semifinal Results: SF 1: Reef McIntosh (HAW) 6.83, Jamie O’Brien (HAW) 4.60, Kai Barger (HAW) 3.11, Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 2.83 SF 2: Makai McNamara (HAW) 6.26, Hank Gaskell (HAW) 3.27, Landon McNamara (HAW) 2.10, Mason Ho (HAW) 1.13 Men’s Pipe Masters Invitational Quarterfinal Results: QF 1: Jamie O’Brien (HAW) 10.40 , Reef McIntosh (HAW) 7.26, Isaiah Moniz (HAW) 6.67, Danny Fuller (HAW) 2.06 QF 2: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 9.04, Kai Barger (HAW) 7.93, Seth Moniz 7.10, Shane Dorian 4.00 QF 3: Landon McNamara (HAW) 6.66, Mason Ho (HAW) 3.20, Tanner Hendrickson (HAW) 1.33, Joel Centeio (HAW) 1.03 QF 4: Hank Gaskell (HAW) 15.50, Makai McNamara (HAW) 6.03, Jack Robinson (AUS) 5.33, Kalani Chapman (HAW) 2.34 Men’s Pipe Masters Invitational Round 1 Results: Heat 1: Danny Fuller (HAW) 13.00, Shane Dorian (HAW) 6.17 , Kalani David (HAW) 6.17, Keanu Asing (HAW) 1.83 Heat 2: Jamie O’Brien (HAW)18.40, Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 8.33, Alex Smith (HAW) 6.67, Olamana Eleogram (HAW) 4.00 Heat 3: Kai Barger (HAW) 7.50, Reef McIntosh (HAW) 6.00, Ian Walsh (HAW) 5.07, Sunny Garcia (HAW) 4.53, Heat 4: Seth Moniz (HAW) 3.84, Isaiah Moniz (HAW)3.57, Granger Larsen (HAW) 1.90, Kaimana Jaquias (HAW) 1.90 Heat 5: Landon McNamara (HAW) 8.10, Kalani Chapman (HAW) 6.10, Billy Kemper (HAW) 5.56, Joshua Moniz (HAW) 4.14 Heat 6: Joel Centeio (HAW) 14.73, Makai McNamara (HAW) 11.13, Kaito Kino (HAW) 10.34, Kiron Jabour (HAW) 4.67 Heat 7: Hank Gaskell (HAW) 6.24, Tanner Hendrickson (HAW) 5.26, Gavin Gillette (HAW) 3.67, Nathan Florence (HAW) 3.63 Heat 8: Jack Robinson (AUS) 13.50, Mason Ho (HAW) 7.64, Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 2.63, Dylan Goodale (HAW) 6.26