O'Neill Cold Water Classic 2011 - California - ALL Highlights of the Finals

19-year old Brazilian Miguel Pupo is the surprise winner of the O'Neill Cold Water Classic Series' final stop in Santa Cruz, California! With his tremendous victory at the last stop, he not only took home the winner's trophy but also the O'Neill Cold Water Classic Champion 2011 title along with USD 90'000 in prize purse. As the waves at Steamer Lane did not allow a serious competition, the tournament was moved to the beaches of Waddell Creek. The last rounds of the mobile format played out perfectly for beach break specialist Pupo. The shallow but fast waves close to the Californian coast were just the right combination and pushed him into his ultimate winning form! Tiago Pires (POR) was the only one, who came close to his level and landed a well deserved 2nd place. Jordy Smith (RSA) and Willian Cardoso (BRA) finished 3rd.

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"Record" for Largest Wave Ever Ridden Trivializes Big-Wave Surfing

A return to old-school measuring techniques is in order

Consider two representations of two very big waves, below. The first is a photograph of Mike Parsons at Cortes Bank. The second is a video of Garrett McNamara near Nazare, Portugal. Now take out some measuring tape and make the distance of one foot between your hands. That's the amount, according to the Billabong XXL committee, that McNamara's wave is bigger than Parsons's wave.