Remember this day, January 15, 2002, it will go down as an epic, one where every element that's required to make something flawless actually came together and worked harmoniously. As a whole more positives, by a long shot, took place on Her Majesties grace. It was an opportunity for the lucky few to have virtually unfettered access to waves that they would not normally get. Others went out there and busted big moves knowing dozens of photographers would capture that moment and they would come in heroes to their peers. Some went out, caught waves deemed top ten in their lives but still failed to advance through and for the unlucky souls in main event round four, having to deal with time constraints, sit back and watch what may not be available tomorrow when they finally enter competition, was just torture.

Getting sympathy for his injuries. Eddie Solomon

The day started off strong in clean waves that reached heights of fifteen feet. As in previous days, seeds in later rounds came by to scope out their potential competition. The top sixteen basically tortured themselves, as they would find out that they wouldn,t be competing today. Some notable mentions must go out to Troy Kneeves, Ian Kruger and Jono Bruce who both looked super smooth and made their marks as potential contenders. Brian Wise also put on a good performance while fellow Californian Eddie Solomon braved torn knee ligaments, three stitches to his eye brow and paddled into some pretty beastie ones. All for photo incentive of course. Well worth the 225 dollar entry fee. Trying not to be impartial but Naoshi Grady of Kauai looked extremely solid and has staked his claim. Jason Hazle looked solid in his free surfs but couldn't put together his maneuvers, ended up third in his heat and has seriously jeopardized his chances of winning the GQT title.

Sitting at a Pipeline contest, being part of the peanut gallery is one of the funniest things one can ever experience, especially if Mark "Buckwheat" Thomas is part of the hecklers and as long as he's not using you as the butt of his jokes.

Kauai Boys, one happy, the other in shock

Round three started with a stellar performance from Joe Jordanoff who currently leads the Super Tour rankings. Dion Myers kept the Australian roll and came up with a win in heat two. One judge gave him a total score of 19.5 out of a possible 20. It was a good showing from a kid that I just met this year that seems to have his head screwed on straight and is very likeable. On paper you would look at heat three and call your predictions but the end results were nothing what most would have bet on, not me! I was calling for Kneeves to take home the win and from there it would be a toss up. The heat included Sean Virtue, Nicholas Capdeville and Babby Quinones. The latter two are notorious for their aggressive contest strategy and have both been spoilers to potential pretenders to the crown. Today they all surfed a clean heat and in the end Capdeville got the second qualifying spot, thus creating the first real upset. Brett Lillyman won heat four, which made four heat wins out of four for Aussies in round three.

Heat five is where things got tense. At the buzzer to start, Kelley Hunt took off and scored a decent tube, nothing to really write home about. He was able to see fellow Kauai Boy Naoshi Grady pull into a super thick, sick, cylinder that well deserved the ten he got from the judging panel. Christian Perez of Spain never was a factor and it looked like it was going to be a Kauai runaway train as the two Hawaiians traded off and both found high scoring tubes. Hunt was all smiles at the end of his twenty-five minute heat. Family and friends surrounded the happy Hawaiian, showering him with praise. Twenty minutes later as results were announced, the smiles turned to frowns then to tight-lipped frustration. He was in shock as were the entire peanut gallery. The beneficiary was Ben Holland. It was later said that Holland was getting deeper and doing turns while Hunt was going for bigger, cleaner, hollower pits. This was the first real disagreement of the day. Take in this fact. Where the peanut gallery sits, at the Ehukai Beach Park, you are able to see how deep a rider gets inside the cylindrical blue walls, while the judging panel sits directly in front of Pipeline and cant see how deep riders get. Alistair Taylor went cuckoo in his heat and left everyone in the dust. Fellow South African, two times Pipeline and two time World Champion Andre Botha also looked solid. Wild card Lanson Ronquillio ran out of steam and joins the ranks of spectators. Jono Bruce ended the day with another heat win and ticket to round four.

Brian "BW, Chubb" Wise

All in all it was just a perfect day for waves, some suspense with Hazle and Virtue getting eliminated, Naoshi Gradys stellar performance, Hunts discrepancy, torture of the top sixteen and Solomon braving injury.

Tomorrow is just a few hours away, there's a good possibility of a slight drop in wave heights, certainly more upsets to come, the crowning of the event winner and the end of what has already been deemed the best event in it's history.