O'Neill Cold Water Classic 2011 - California

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

Miguel Pupo wins the O'Neill Cold Water Classic Santa Cruz as well as the O'Neill Cold Water Classic Series 2011, walking away with a total of $90,000 prize money! With Steamer Lane not breaking properly, the final day of competition took place under bright sunshine at the beach break of Waddell Creek. Going into the competition Miguel was a long shot for the O'Neill Cold Water Classic Series title. The 19-year-old Brazilian had been sitting in 17th place on the CWC rankings list following a 5th place in New Zealand. To win the CWC Series, Miguel needed to win the event - and that he did in his final against Tiago Pires as he pulled out a 9.3 and a 9.6! En-route to the final Miguel knocked out some big names including local star Nat Young in the quarterfinals as well as fellow countryman Willian Cardoso in the semi finals, who would have taken the Series win had Miguel not gone on to win the final. In the other semi-final Tiago Pires took out South African, Jordy Smith.

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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.