{"id":26234,"date":"2011-10-30T16:43:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-30T23:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=26234"},"modified":"2011-10-30T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2011-10-31T00:13:17","slug":"miguel-pupo-takes-cold-water-classic-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=26234","title":{"rendered":"Miguel Pupo Takes Cold Water Classic California"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Miguel-Pupo-Final-Release\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We don’t normally follow the ASP Prime events, but seeing as everyone was in town for the Rip Curl Pro Search SF<\/a><\/strong> it seems like the O’Neill Cold Water Classic California<\/strong> got pretty heated. Miguel Pupo<\/strong>, 19, took out Tiago Pires<\/strong> after Tiago shut down Jordy Smith<\/strong> in semi final 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel unbelievable right now,\u201d Pupo said. \u201cI was feeling comfortable out there and I was just trying to surf my best and I won. I\u2019ve been surfing a beach break my whole life and I\u2019m used to these waves. I was really lucky that we moved to here (Waddell Creek). It could have been a different story if we ran at The Lane.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Follow the jump for the official word from the ASP.SANTA CRUZ, California\/USA (Sunday, October 30, 2011) \u2013 Miguel Pupo (BRA), 19, has defeated Tiago Pires (BRA), 31, to win the ASP PRIME O\u2019Neill Cold Water Classic California in peaky one-to-three foot (.5 metro) waves at the backup location of Waddell Creek and also clinched the additional US$50,000 prize purse as the top finisher on the O\u2019Neill CWC Series. <\/p>\n

With limited swell and unfavorable tides on several days of the O\u2019Neill Cold Water Classic California waiting period, surfers at this year\u2019s event had to perform at both the iconic point break of Steamer Lane as well as the beach break of Waddell Creek in order to earn a top result.<\/p>\n

Pupo dominated the final against the Portuguese veteran and relied on his patented aerial game on the lefthand ramps of Waddell Creek to solidify his victory with two near-perfect scores of 9.33 and 9.60, the highest single-wave score of the event, after an amazing showing throughout the contest\u2019s entirety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel unbelievable right now,\u201d Pupo said. \u201cI was feeling comfortable out there and I was just trying to surf my best and I won. I\u2019ve been surfing a beach break my whole life and I\u2019m used to these waves. I was really lucky that we moved to here (Waddell Creek). It could have been a different story if we ran at The Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Pupo\u2019s dominant effort in the Final, the high-flying Brazilian rampaged to a near-perfect heat of 19.14 (out of 20), the event\u2019s highest, to kick off his run on the final day. Pupo topped local favorite Nat Young (Santa Cruz, CA), 20, and fellow countrymen Willian Cardoso (BRA), 25, before defeating fellow ASP World Tour campaigner Pires in the Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really nervous to surf against Nat (Young) and I knew it was going to be a hard heat,\u201d Pupo said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best juniors in the world and a local out here. Luckily I caught a couple of waves and eventually got those two 9\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pupo, who joined the elite ASP Top 34 after the midyear rotation, climbs the standings compliments of the ASP PRIME victory, substantially increasing his chances of requalification for the start of the 2012 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose points are going to help me a lot and this is a really important result for me going in to the rest of the year,\u201d Pupo said. \u201cTo get the points and win $90,000 today, I\u2019m so happy\u201d<\/p>\n

Pires relied on impeccable wave selection as well as classic rail-to-rail power-surfing en route to his equal 3rd place finish, topping ASP World No. 6 Jordy Smith (ZAF), 22, in his Semifinals bout, but was unable to surpass Pupo for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stoked, with these kinds of conditions I didn\u2019t see myself in the final today and I was just really happy to be out there,\u201d Pires said. \u201cMiguel (Pupo) put on a show and I have to take my hat off to him. He\u2019s one of the best surfers in the world in these conditions and he deserves it. I\u2019m stoked I got second and this result is going to help my result on the World Rankings so I\u2019m really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordy Smith also displayed his impressive aerial game on the final day of O\u2019Neill Cold Water Classic competition at the backup venue of Waddell Creek, overtaking fellow aerial mastermind Josh Kerr (AUS), 27, in the Quarterfinals, but was unable to find a rhythm against Pires in their Semifinals match-up, finishing equal 3rd overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to lose when you\u2019re right there, especially since it\u2019s my sponsor\u2019s event and I wanted to do well for them,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was really hard out there with the waves only being half-a-foot, but what are you going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, who suffered a rib Injury at the elite ASP World Title event at Teahupoo, is on his way to a full recovery and the O\u2019Neill Cold Water Classic California was a perfect momentum builder for the upcoming ASP World Title event in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy injury has been taking its time,\u201d Smith said. \u201cOne week I feel good and the next I feel bad, so I\u2019ve had my ups and downs. I went to go see the doctor and he said it\u2019s not too bad. Every time I surfed on it, any more than one or two heats it\u2019d hurt really bad, it\u2019s not hurting at all so it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willian Cardoso (BRA) who was ranked No. 43 on the men\u2019s ASP World Ranking entering the event, relied on a similar strategy to Pires on the final day competition and displayed seamless power-surfing on his backhand en route to an equal 3rd place result.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s big points for me, it would have been nice to make one more heat, but it\u2019s small conditions and I feel like I surfed well,\u201d Cardoso said. \u201cI\u2019m happy because I wanted to make a result before I went to Hawaii. Now I have a chance to qualify at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

For O\u2019Neill Cold Water Classic highlights log on to www.oneill.com\/cwc<\/p>\n

For additional ASP information log on to www.aspworldtour.com or www.aspnorthamerica.org<\/p>\n

O\u2019NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC FINAL RESULT
\n1 \u2013 Miguel Pupo (BRA) 18.93
\n2 \u2013 Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.20<\/p>\n

O\u2019NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC SEMIFINALS RESULTS:
\nSF 1: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.33 def. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 8.80
\nSF 2: Tiago Pires (PRT) 12.33 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 10.43<\/p>\n

O\u2019NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC QUARTERFINALS RESULTS:
\nQF 1: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 14.00 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 11.00
\nQF 2: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 19.14 def. Nat Young (USA) 13.16
\nQF 3: Tiago Pires (PRT) 9.56 def. Nic Muscroft (AUS) 7.93
\nQF 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.67 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.33<\/p>\n

O\u2019NEILL COLD WATER CLASSIC ROUND OF 12 RESULTS:
\nHeat 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) 10.43 def. Nathan Yeomans (USA) 10.00
\nHeat 2: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.00 def. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 6.17
\nHeat 3: Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.50 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 6.24
\nHeat 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.33 def. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 5.90<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t normally follow the ASP Prime events, but seeing as everyone was in town for the Rip Curl Pro Search SF it seems like the O’Neill Cold Water Classic California got pretty heated. Miguel Pupo, 19, took out Tiago Pires after Tiago shut down Jordy Smith in semi final 2. \u201cI feel unbelievable right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26234"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26234"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26240,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26234\/revisions\/26240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}