2004 O'Neill World Cup of Surfing

Andy Irons snaps back into form. CunninghamPhotos.com

Honolulu, HAWAII - The standard of competition in round four of the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach was as stiff as the 25 mile per hour Tradewinds that prevailed over the third day of competition today. The entrance of the top 32 seeds to the event, including world champion Andy Irons (Hawaii) and six-time world champion Kelly Slater (Florida), along with a consistent swell of six to eight feet took the event to a whole new level.

Back-to-back heats eight and nine saw a solid mid-week crowd take up on the famous sands of Sunset Beach with a who's who of professional surfing. Heat eight saw Andy Irons step up to redeem himself after a premature loss in the first event of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing Series at Haleiwa a little over a week ago. Eliminated in his first heat there, it is now up to Irons to earn exceptional results in the O'Neill World Cup and the final event at Pipeline if he is to have a shot at a third Vans Triple Crown title. Hawaii's Sunny Garcia is the current Vans Series leader, following his victory at Haleiwa. After a strong heat win in the fourth round today, he remains the strongest contender.

Irons was up against Shane Beschen (California), local surfer Daniel Jones and Australian Shaun Cansdell in round four today. After one short ride, Irons scored a beautiful tube that earned the highest individual score of the event to date - 9.6 points out of a possible 10. But as his rivals started chipping away at the scores to whittle down his lead, 26-year-old Irons began to wonder if he was about to see a second event slip through his fingers.

"I just had that one wave to start with," said Irons of his 9.6 point ride. "I was wondering if (the same thing) was going to happen all over again. You've really got to monitor the ocean and try to position yourself the best. It's kind of a gamble. It's by far the hardest place to win, just the playing field, the take-off zone... even Kelly (Slater) has a hard time winning out here."

But Mother Nature rose to the occasion, offering up one more strong ride that earned Irons 7.17 points for the second highest total of the competition so far: 16.77 points. The highest score is 17.1, from Australian Daniel Ross in round three.

"I actually caught the wave before the good one and fell, but luckily I was able to get back out there quick. It lined up really well, I set it up and then got barreled. It was a nice wave."

Irons last year arrived at Sunset Beach with the pressure of winning the world title resting on his shoulders. This year, with the world title already in his pocket, the pressure is off, but the desire to win the Triple Crown title continues. He is the defending series champion.

"Last year was way too stressful," continued Irons. "It's so nice to come home, relax and have fun. It would be awesome to win here. Sunset's a world class spot. But I think the Triple Crown is way out of my reach now. Sunny's so solid and surfing so well that it's nearly impossible to beat him now."

As Irons met with film crews and photographers on shore, his eyes remained on the lineup as highly touted heat nine with Slater, Sunset local Pancho Sullivan, former event champion Myles Padaca (Hawaii) and Brazil's Yuri Sodre caught their opening rides. The lineup of talent for this heat made it worthy of being a final in itself.

Sullivan was the first to make his move, opening up with a wide-open, long-walling ride that proved to be the perfect canvas for his hefty, powerful form. Drawn out sweeping turns and top-to-bottom carves - Pancho's trademarks, blazed a trail from beginning to end, earning him 9.33 points. After three short rides, Slater found what he'd been looking for in the form of an 8.7 point ride. At that point, the four-man, 35-minute heat, became a two-man duel. Slater found a second ride of high-scoring maneuvers toward the close of the heat for 7.17 points, but a long-awaited second strong score finally came for Sullivan, who wrapped up the heat with a tube and several gouging turns for 7.03.

"I was scrambling at the end to get a second score," said Sullivan, 31, who ultimately took first place in the heat ahead of Slater with the aid of the second high scoring ride. "Get the right ride and you can get the barrel.

"Sunset is such a high performance wave. I didn't perform at the level I'm capable of. I was kind of playing cat and mouse between the peaks. When you get Kelly in a heat you know you have to surf it at the highest level.

"To do well here means a lot to me. The Triple Crown is as big as a world title to me. Being a local here doesn't really count for much in a contest like this though. You've got to kind of just throw everything out the window and go with what the day is offering. But what does help is the equipment, and I've been working on my boards for Sunset for years. This wave is such a challenge and I really want to win a Triple Crown event."

The heat between Slater, Sullivan, Padaca and Sodre was one of the highest scoring heats of the competition. Sullivan won with a total of 16.36 to Slater's 15.87, Padaca's 10.5 and 4.87 for Sodre.

Other heat winners today included Sunny Garcia (Hawaii), C.J Hobgood (Florida), Kalani Robb (Hawaii), Paulo Maura (Brazil), Pablo Gutierrez (Spain), Ben Bourgeois (North Carolina), and Fabio Gouveia (Brazil). Young Sunset Beach standout Nathan Carroll also excelled, advancing in second place behind Maura.

A satellite feed of highlights from this event will be made available. Details will be circulated at the end of the event.

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is made possible through the support of a partnership of the world's leading brands and media companies including: Ford Trucks, G-Shock, O'Neill, Rip Curl, Surfing Magazine, Surfline.com, Roxy.com, Oahu's Turtle Bay Resort, The Honolulu Advertiser and Fox Sports Net.

For more information: Jodi Young, in Hawaii Tel: (808) 258-8533 (not for public release)