Taj Burrow Wins Pipe Masters

Taj Burrow Wins Pipe Masters in his first appearance in the finals. With 11 years on the ASP World Tour, Australia’s Taj Burrow defeated reigning and six-time Pipe Masters champion Kelly Slater in the final heat. Taj controlled the 35-minute final from start to finish realizing that conditions favored high-performance, aerial maneuvers over the tube-riding that Pipeline is famous for.

In clean three-to-five foot waves, Slater had one short tube ride that only netted him a 3.93, which was his best wave score of the final. This was in contrast to the 8.73 average wave score he was carring into the final. The final two-wave totals had Taj on top with 12.83 points out of a possible 20. Kelly ended with a total of 7.10.

The Billabong Pipe Masters is the third and final stop of the Triple Crown of Surfing series on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. “This is 100% as good as you can imagine,” said Taj on the podium. “For me, winning this contest is the next best thing to winning a World Title. This is the one and only event that everyone would probably pick to win and I can’t believe I’m standing here right now. It’s an amazing feeling. There are so many tough guys that you go up against in this event that I thought it was out of my reach. This is the best victory of my career.”