Page 3 - MidWeek West - Feb 16, 2022

Aloha surfers and beachgoers,
The best winter in recent memory continues to deliver. Expect more adviso- ry swells well past the mid- dle of February. What great timing for the 2022 World Championship Tour kick- off! Stop No. 2 is now at the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach. Check Surf News Network for the latest juice.
This means several crite- ria had to be met. One was size. We had surf anywhere from 6 to 12 feet for the en- tire waiting period of Jan. 29 to Feb 10. A second was direction. We had back-to- back-to-back west northwest swells, which are ideal for the Banzai reef. The third criteria is the period. Swell thickness was 14-16 sec- onds, again exactly what Pipe likes. The fourth item is winds. For the most part we had light trades groom- ing the line up with spar- kling barrels, holding those caverns open so the world’s
best surfers could get extra deep. We can also add great weather and record crowds taking up every square foot of ‘Ehukai Beach Park, which is perfect.
The Billabong Pro Pipe- line could not have asked for more. I mean this liter- ally. Pipe was king, produc- ing what many call the best Pipeline event ever.
It was international news on Feb. 5 when 11-time world champ Kelly Slater somehow managed a yet another miracle and won his eighth WCT Pipe contest at 50 years old. The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) turned a half-century on Feb. 11.
The emotion hits 11-time world champion Kelly Slater (pictured at right with runner-up Seth Moniz of Hawai‘i) following his eighth victory of the men’s final at the Billabong Pro Pipeline. PHOTO COURTESY WSL / BIELMANN
athletic feat was especially at death-defying. Slater won he won his first world title at 50. Pipeline is 99% a young this most prestigious event 20 years old — the youngest man’s/woman’s wave. It is 30 years ago in 1992 when SEE PAGE 4
BY GARY KEWLEY
Kelly Slater Wins Big Just Days Before 50th Birthday
It’s difficult to express just how astonishing, phenom- enal and unprecedented his
FEBRUARY 16, 2022 3
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