In a Final that consisted of a Hawaiian, an Australian, a South African and a Floridian. At maxing Sunset, a wave known for being as challenging and big as they get, at least in high performance surfing, you know turns and barrels and shit, not just going straight down a monster. Sunset's motto is big boards, big faces, big barrels and big consequences. Who won? The Floridian.

Big Sunset is about as opposite of Florida as you can get. Big Florida is like Sunset Point on a small day when all the keiki are out. And still these guys just keep on winning. Slater, the Lopezs', the Hobgoods', etc, the guys from the "Sunshine State," can handle in big waves.

CJ Hobgood proved that yesterday at gigantic Sunset on his backhand. The day started of with medium sized surf, but it just kept building, and by early afternoon it was about as big as the place can handle. Jordy Smith had been surfing amazingly all day, he really impressed me, putting his 6'2" 200lb. frame to use out there. He just had a little bit of a melt down in final, which climaxed when he broke his magic stick.

Pretty much, CJ got a bomb, made a huge drop, did two huge, very critical turns and got an 8.5 or something. Leaving Marcus Hickman and Tom Whitaker needing one wave in the high 8 point range that never came.

I think the funniest part was when the announcer onstage announced CJ as Damien Hobgood. Everyone on that beach had been hearing the name CJ fucking Hobgood over and over again all damn day, and he still said, "Here's your winner of the 2008 O'Neill World Cup of Surfing Damien Hobgood.