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Mick Fanning has broken his Hawaiian duck at the best possible time as he prepares for the World Surf League decider.
A week before the Pipeline Masters at nearby Banzai Pipeline decides whether the Australian wins a fourth world title, Fanning was outstanding in the final of the Vans World Cup.
He unleashed a 9.87 wave score – the highest of the day – to take out the final at Sunset Beach on Oahu’s North Shore.
“It’s been a dream of mine, to win an event here in Hawaii,” Fanning said.
“To do it at Sunset, I am so stoked.”
Fanning won the second event of Hawaiian surfing’s famed triple crown with a 15.20 in the final.
Compatriot Julian Wilson made the early running in the final with a 9.47 wave, but he was unable to put up the late score that would have taken him past Fanning.
Wilson was runner-up in the final with 12.57, ahead of Hawaiian John John Florence (12) and Australian Matt Wilkinson (10.20).
The finalists had four heats on Friday (AEDT) in the big surf.
“If the event (Pipe Masters) was on tomorrow, I’d be dead – I am so tired,” Fanning said after the final..
“But I just had a lot of fun all day.”
Fanning had a near-perfect run on the last day, winning his round four and quarter-final heats and then taking second in the semi-finals behind Florence.
The Pipe Masters is the last event in the triple crown and the contest for the world title will be riveting.
Fanning is on 49,700 points, only 200 ahead of Filipe Toledo, while fellow Brazilian Adriano de Souza is third on 49,450.
They are the main three contenders, but even seventh-placed Wilson is in the hunt on 41.450.
The others are reigning world champion Gabriel Medina (Brazil), who is fourth on 45,350 and Australian Owen Wright, fifth on 43,600.
A quirk of the points system means that sixth-placed Brazilian Italo Ferreira cannot win the world title, no matter how well he does at the Pipe Masters.
The waiting period for the Pipe Masters starts next Tuesday.
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