Josh Moniz Wins The Pipe Trials In Virile Fashion, Mikey And Leo Go 1-1

The Pipe Trials are one of my favorite events in surfing. The age difference and experience gap between some of these guys is ludicrous. Wave IQ and experience account for a huge advantage at Pipe, which was evident when Zeke Lau and Ivan Florence started threading caverns in Round 1. But sometimes, the young guns just don’t care. For instance, Eli Hanneman made it to the semi-finals, clipping Jamie O’Brien and Anthony Walsh along the way. Taking out guys who have over 10 more years of Pipe experience under their belt? I told you this kid was going to be a problem.

The day started off slow, but a surprise swell began to fill in toward the end of the first round. Once decent sized sets started rolling in, they didn’t stop. The waves got significantly bigger and hollower, all the way up to the final, where Josh Moniz put on a clinic. Three-wave bomb-sets started rolling in, leaving us to witness one inverted drop after another. Moniz put up two 9.6’s in the wildly entertaining final and won the heat by 6.1 points, combo-ing the field.

“I feel great, it’s a pretty amazing feeling, being able to just keep surfing at Pipe, my favorite wave in the world,” said Moniz, 2020 Pipe Invitational winner. “This is probably the best heat I’ve ever had. I grew up surfing against all those guys and I know how good they are. I was definitely nervous, but I’m glad it worked out.”

If Josh won’t say it, I will: the guy basically whipped his nuts out and dragged them across the swiss cheese reef with no remorse.

If you’re surprised that it was Miguel Tudela who shared the podium with Mr. Moniz, you haven’t been paying very close attention. While the Peruvian may not have his name in lights, he’s had a formidable presence in Hawaii for years. Case in point: this video he dropped from the 2019/20 season. When Pipe gets big, a lot of surfers fade into the background. That’s clearly not Miguel, who’s surfing only got better as the waves increased today. This will be his first Pipe Masters. 

Oh yeah, and don’t forget Mikey Wright and Leo Fioravanti are going best-2-out-of-3 on who gets to keep their job this year. The WSL has opted to use the rock-paper-scissors rulebook as a reference for the injury wildcard decision.  Wright’s coming off a back injury. Fioravanti is recovering from a dislocated shoulder. Both are itching for a spot on Tour. Mikey took the first round (by one mullet hair), but Leo retaliated in the second, leaving the deciding heat for tomorrow morning.

You’ll be watching, won’t ya?