Pro Surfing and Contests

O’Neill World Cup - finals recap

In what turned into an amazing final, complete with broken boards, lost boards, near drownings, huge closeout sets and spectacular wave riding, 2001 World Champ, CJ Hobgood went above and beyond, and pulled out a big win at the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. 

CJ was on fire today, taking down a sea of regularfoots, and topping a stacked final with super-sized local, Marcus Hickman; top South African World Tour surfer, Jordy Smith; and Aussie World Tour standout, Tom Whitaker.  CJ’s road to the final saw him top Marlon Lipke (DEU) and Dayyan Neve (AUS) in Round 4 on Tuesday.  He won his Thursday morning, Round 5 heat, topping his brother, Damien; local Hawaiian, Marcus Hickman and Brazilian charger, Leandro Bastos.  He came in first in his Quarterfinal heat, winning over local star, Dusty Payne; and up and coming Aussies, Yadin Nicol and Rhys Bombaci.  CJ did the same in the Semifinals, taking top honors in his heat, above 2007 World Champ Mick Fanning, and local Hawaiians, Marcus Hickman and Dusty Payne.  All in all, he had a pretty solid run for a boy from Florida in macking Sunset.

CJ’s win at Sunset puts him in solid contention for the 2008 Triple Crown title going into Pipeline, right up there with Reef Hawaiian Pro winner, Michel Bourez (PYF) and Reef Hawaiian Pro finalist and O’Neill Semifinalist, Dusty Payne (HAW).  With the World Title all wrapped up a while back, aside from the race for second place in the World Tour rankings and the race to requalify, we can expect to see CJ make an extra push to lock down the 2008 Triple Crown title.  The goofyfooter will find himself in his element at Pipe.  As Kelly Slater said, CJ “is just scary to watch in big lefthand barrels”.  See you at Pipeline.

http://www.triplecrownofsurfing.com/

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