Surfing
Pipeline set the stage with some of the best contest surf we've ever seen, and Slater put on a show.
NORTH SHORE, Oahu — Over the last three days of competition at the Volcom Pipe Pro, we watched what were arguably the best North Shore conditions in recent surf contest history. Like clockwork, when Pipe turned on, Kelly Slater stepped up, and while it was hardly a new storyline it was damn well entertaining. Meet your 2016 Volcom Pipe Pro champ.
It was a mixed bag of a lineup in the final, with North Shore heavies Slater and Jamie O'Brien squaring off against a lower-seeded Bruce Irons and a local young gun in Makai McNamara. Slater's performance and consistency were absolutely unparalleled, but that doesn't mean the surfers nipping at his heels didn't blow some minds along the way.
It was Slater's first event win in the last two years, dating back to his 2014 win in this same contest at Pipe. From wave pools to maxed out Pipe, Slater remains The King, and we remain witnesses. If you missed a single heat of the Volcom Pipe Pro, or just want to watch it all over again, catch every heat on-demand with the Red Bull TV Heat Analyzer, right now.