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Surfing fans who watched the Vans Pipe Masters surf competition, held from December 9-12 on the North Shore of Oahu, were treated to a thrilling near-upset. On the competition’s first day, a South African surfer named Mikey February threaded a massive right-hand barrel to cement himself as the early standout performer.

February, 30, isn’t exactly a household name in the world of competitive surfing. He’s a so-called “free surfer” from Cape Town who is best known for his stylistic flow on twin fins and longer boards.

But February’s dominance would not hold. On the second of three competition days he was topped by two-time world champion John John Florence, who eventually won his second-career Pipe Masters after topping Makana Pang in the final heat.

“It feels so good. Those ones are so hard when there’s not a lot of good waves,” Florence said about his win. “But it was really fun grinding it out with all my friends.”

February’s day of fame—and viewers’ momentary excitement about an upset—is related to the Pipe Masters’ unusual format. Rather than drawing from the world’s best competitive surfers, the event gives half of its entries to surfers from Hawaii, and the other half to free surfers and riders of heavy waves from around the globe, such as Tahiti’s Matahi Drollet and Senegal’s Cherif Fall. The 40 men and 20 women surfed three times in four-person heats. The competition produced some memorable scenes for surf fans. A good example: We got to see three rounds of Florence surfing alongside his two younger brothers, Nathan and Ivan.��

The top four women—Olympic gold medalist Carissa Moore, tour surfer Molly Picklum, 16-year-old phenom Erin Brooks, and North Shore local Moana Jones Wong—surfed in a final with ideal conditions. Jones Wong, 24, made it out of two significant barrels—her GoPro video shows a broad, almost peaceful, smile on her face, with a blue ceiling above her—and the rides propelled her to her second Pipe Masters win.

“That definitely boosted the confidence,” Jones Wong said. “But it is just a contest, and I don’t really like to let a contest define how good I am or how bad I am.”

The top four men—Florence, Makana Pang, Seth Moniz, and Billy Kemper—suffered through windy and ungainly close-outs in the final.

“It was pretty funny out there. We were kinda laughing at how bad it was,” Florence said at the podium after.

Florence got in and out of two sloppy barrels to clinch the victory in the final round. The win was more confirmation that Florence is still the man to beat in competitions.

“With John winning—not that it wasn’t solidified before that obviously—this pushes the point even further that he’s the guy out at Pipe,” said Pang, a 23-year-old North Shore local who finished just behind Florence. Florence and Jones Wong join the ranks of Gerry Lopez, Rory Russell, and Jeremy Flores as two-time Pipe Masters. (They have a way to go before catching Andy Irons’ four wins or Kelly Slater’s seven.)

With the surf conditions swinging from pristine to hectic throughout the three-day competition, the local crew demonstrated the advantage of being so familiar with the Banzai Pipeline, a world-famous wave that can be as perfect as it can be dangerous and fickle. At Pipeline, swell from the northwest Pacific piles up and trips fast over a sharp, shallow reef, throwing a watery lip over the lucky surfer. The shifting sand and gusting wind can give a sizable advantage to locals.

“We have a bit of an advantage because we know how she breaks,” Pang said. “For everyone that doesn’t spend a lot of time out there, it’s so easy to get lost.”

Florence grew up in a beachfront house with a view of the wave. In fact, all four men to qualify for the finals live on Oahu. Jones Wong, who lives near the break, has been working her way up the Pipe hierarchy since she was 18. In 2020 she scored her first major win at the break, and in 2022 she shot to the top of the international leaderboard after the World Surf League allowed women on the Championship Tour to surf Pipe. She earned her title after grabbing a wildcard entry into that event.

Like many Pipeline aficionados, Jones Wong sees something animate in the wave. During the final, she recalled, “I was asking, ‘Please send me this wave, I really need this wave.’ She sent me those waves. As soon as I asked for it, they came.”