“You Beat A World Champ At Pipeline”

Signs of a strong friend group: support, laughter, good-natured banter, and crisp hand daps. 

All those traits come through in the above Cola Bros video highlighting the 2% crew’s first crack at the CT last week. Despite a mixed back for results, the vibes were still high. 

The above video documents the heats, but there are lots of other behind-the-scenes nuggets. Kelly Slater says Griffin Colapinto looked “kinda Masony” on more foam during warmups. The boys cackle at Kade Matson forgetting to clip his bungee cord from an apex Backdoor wave, while Eli Hanneman reminds them they’re lucky to be laughing given Pipeline’s notorious headcount. But it did make for an excellent Surf’s Up reference, so major props to Shane Kreutzer for genius editing. 

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Cole Houshmand, after winning the Challenger Series and having the highest seed of the rookies, got an equal 33rd in his first CT thanks to some clever tactics from Jordy Smith and monk-like patience from Liam O’Brien. 

 “I made that one wave, that was it. What else? I didn’t do much wrong,” said a visibly frustrated Cole to Luke Egan. 

“Everyone gotta dig deep at some point in the year,” Luke told him. “Caroline did exactly what you just did last year and won the world title.” 

Nothing like someone having your back to help wipe the slate clean. Speaking of support, the Pipeline Pro was the first event where Crosby Colapinto joined his brother as a fully-fledged CT member. While his brother had scroll arresting barrels at Pipeline, Crosby won his first man-on-man CT heat over five-time Pipeline finalist Gabriel Medina by threading a solid Backdoor chamber. 

“How stoked were you when he got caught inside?” Cole asked Crosby afterward. “That was psycho. You beat a world champ at fucking Pipeline.”

Both Crosby and Griffin finished with equal 9ths. I can’t help but think that Griffin must love putting clutch scores on the board in front of his younger friends, much in the same way that Kolohe once did for him. A little brotherly love (and competition) could provide extra motivation.

Let’s see if they can keep the ball rolling. The boys have been putting their time in at Sunset, which will kick off today. Those burly, lurching walls could play into the strengths of the 2 Percenters. All of them know how to leverage their frame against Sunset’s west bowl. And I’m not just spewing optimism. Out of the rookie class, Cole and Crosby have the highest betonline.ag odds to win Sunset at +5000 (Sorry Ramzi Boukiam, WSL says you’re not a rook). 

So, after one CT event are you bearish or bullish on the 2% rookies?