Here's a bit of breaking news from the North Shore. While the biggest and most powerful swell in a decade is setting Hawaii abuzz, the Triple Crown's own Randy Rarrick recently stated that Bruce Irons--a three-time winner at Pipeline--will be awarded a wildcard in to the event.

Earlier in the year, Bruce failed to receive a slot from the Hawaii Surfers Union through a peer pole they conducted. The poll, voted by surfers within the union, elects six surfers into the event. Many were baffled as to how a surfer with a reputation forged around Pipeline was left out of the mix.

Unlike many other events where one to two wildcards are awarded an opportunity to compete against the World Tour, the Billabong Pipe Masters awards 16 seeds.

When the story first broke that Bruce had failed to gain entry to the event, he nonchalantly responded that there there are other ways into the event. And he was right.

According to the Triple Crown's head official Randy Rarrick, Bruce Irons will be surfing in the event as a Vans injury wildcard replacement pick to replace Marlon Lipke.

Sunny Garcia has also received a place in the event via his showing in the Triple Crown.

The waiting period for the Pipe Masters begins tomorrow, December 8. Don't get your hopes up for an early start just yet as all signs point to conditions too large to run heats at Pipeline. But when they do, you can expect the following list of surfers (including Bruce Irons and Sunny Garcia) to be competing against the World Tour's best when the final event of the season get underway.

Peer Poll Entries

Reef McIntosh, Danny Fuller, Marcus Hickman, Kalani Chapman, Jamie O'Brien, Kamalei Alexander.

Top Eight Seeds from the HIC Pipeline Pro:
Jonah Morgan, Flynn Novak, Liam McNamara, Mason Ho, Hank Gaskell, Dusty Payne, Gavin Gillette, Sion Milosky.

Event Wildcards: (One Tahitian surfer, a Billabong appointed wildcard, and a Vans wildcard)
Andy Irons (Billabong), John John Florence (Vans), and Manoa Drollet (Tahiti).