Vans Triple Crown of Surfing 04'- Very Best of Winter From The North Shore, Oahu
For established champions and aspiring pipeliners alike, theVans Triple Crown of Surfingis like a greatest-hits collection that never goes out of style. This 65-minute surf-orgy covers all three competitions in the 22nd annual Triple Crown challenge, which is essentially the Stanley Cup, World Series, and Super Bowl of surfing, all rolled into one awesome showdown on the most challenging breaks of Oahu's north shore. It's there, in the tropical winter of 2004, that the world's greatest surfers showed up to compete against the best of the best, a stellar lineup of veterans and newcomers including Derek Ho, Mark "Occy" Occilupo, Phillip MacDonald, brothers Bruce and Andy Irons, Tom Carroll, and many others. The TC tour is comprised of the Vans Hawaiian Pro tournament at Haleiwa (which many consider the "scariest" break of all, with huge waves on a shallow-water base); the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach ("the most challenging," some say); and the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters competition at Pipeline, where the biggest breaks (and a deadly reputation) cause even the boldest surfers to get a case of the jitters. It's there that finalists Jamie O'Brien, Kalani Robb, Bruce Irons, and six-time Triple Crown winner Sunny Garcia (the first surfer to surpass $1 million in prize money) compete for the title of "best in the world," and director Bill Kiely's camera crew is there, in the roiling surf, to capture all the action. While not as visually awesome asBillabong Odyssey, this Triple Crown survey has more to offer for seasoned surfers and pros-in-the-know, providing an insider's view of the race for their most coveted prize. The pounding rock soundtrack (parental advisory suggested, for "f-word" lyrics) is excerpted on a bonus disc with eight tracks from various artists (Death by Stereo, Matchbook Romance, Pennywise and others) on the Epitaph label.--Jeff Shannon