Brazilian wonderkid Miguel Pupo had one heck of a say in Santa Cruz, taking the victory at Waddel Creek and snatching the overall CWC series title in the process. Miguel will be taking home $90,000 for his work today.

Minimal swell forced competition to relocate to the backup venue of Waddel Creek once again, which worked out very well for the diminutive goofyfoot, who was still able to perform despite the deteriorating conditions.

“I’ve been surfing a beachbreak my whole life and I’m used to these waves. I was really lucky that we moved to here (Waddell Creek). It could have been a different story if we ran at The Lane.”

Said Pupo, while Jordy Smith found himself on the opposite side of that fence,

“It was really hard out there with the waves only being half-a-foot, but what are you going to do.”

Jordy was able to make the semi-final, losing a close heat to Tiago Pires.

A painful lack of swell and an annoying surplus of tidal changes plagued this year’s event, causing problems for the event itself as well as the webcast viewing experience.

The small-wave-killing-machine from Brazil has a notable advantage in shit-surf that only increases as the size of the waves decrease. Pupo has once again capitalized on the fickle nature of surfing itself. Sometimes the waves just don’t come.

With this Prime victory, along with his Nike Lowers Pro victory earlier in the year, Pupo is now at 18th on the world rankings and looking great to requalify for next season.

Both finalists will be continuing their Northern California tour with the Rip Curl Pro Search Event starting Tuesday in San Francisco.

O’NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC FINAL RESULT
1 – Miguel Pupo (BRA) 18.93
2 – Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.20

O’NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC SEMIFINALS RESULTS:
SF 1: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.33 def. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 8.80
SF 2: Tiago Pires (PRT) 12.33 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 10.43

O’NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC QUARTERFINALS RESULTS:
QF 1: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 14.00 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 11.00
QF 2: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 19.14 def. Nat Young (USA) 13.16
QF 3: Tiago Pires (PRT) 9.56 def. Nic Muscroft (AUS) 7.93
QF 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.67 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.33

O’NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC ROUND OF 12 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) 10.43 def. Nathan Yeomans (USA) 10.00
Heat 2: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.00 def. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 6.17
Heat 3: Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.50 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 6.24
Heat 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.33 def. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 5.90