It was deja vu for Ben Player while winning the men’s APB Pipe Pro bodyboarding contest for the second year in a row on Sunday at Ehukai Beach.
The Australian from Avalon Beach was shredding the 4- to 8-foot surf with knife-like precision.
"Right now it’s all a bit of a blur," Player said. "That final was amazing and everyone was ripping. It was a really hard final. It’s probably one of my best finals I have ever had out at Pipe because luck kind of went my way. I got some good waves and I was able to build on some early scores."
On Player’s second wave, he took to the air on the end section of Backdoor and launched a giant reverse 360. The move gave him the lead and the win.
"I have tried to win out here for 15 years and never won it and I was just getting so frustrated, but last year I won," he said. "I don’t know. Sometimes the tides just turn and things go your way. Competition is kind of an example of that."
Player is the current and three-time world champion of bodyboarding, and he holds the Pipe title in the highest regard.
For the first time in the event, there was a junior pro division, and 14-year-old Tanner McDaniel from Kauai took the win.
"I am feeling pretty good. I am super stoked," McDaniel said. "Winning at Pipe is pretty high up on my list of things I want to do. … It’s the ultimate venue.
McDaniel was surfing at Pipeline with a champion’s poise, waiting for the best waves and ripping them to pieces. Eleven-time world bodyboard champion Mike Stewart sponsors McDaniel and considers him a protege.
"Mike has helped me so much at Pipe, like show me the lineup, how the waves are going to break and show me which ones are good and which ones are bad as well as mentally help me prepare for my heats," McDaniel said.
The first wave he caught was an absolute gem, and it turned out to be the highest-scoring wave of the final.
"I was going to go on the first wave of the set, but Noa Auweloa (who placed second in the final) got it and luckily I got the second one and it was good," McDaniel said. "It was one of the better waves I have got out there. I just pulled in the barrel and traveled for a while before I got spat out."
