With a number of mind-blowing tubes in contention for the August leg of the Monster Pitstop in association with O’Neill, Vestal, Skullcandy and Neff, the judging panel once again had a tough decision to make. But they came to a unanimous decision in the end by awarding all three votes to…
Twiggy wins Leg 3 of the Monster Pitstop with this crazy Puerto Escondido tube.
“The size and massive spit make this wave a definite winner for me this month,” said Paul Canning from O’Neill to back up his vote. “Twiggy shows incredible grace under huge pressure to prove again why he is one of the best big wave barrel riders in the world.”
“Very few humans could have done that,” explained Joel Gray from Monster when casting his vote. “I love his full commitment to try and set his line having taken off super deep, using his back arm almost like another fin too. Epic!”
Twiggy’s ride was filmed by Daniel Balbuena, and as well as sharing this month’s prize worth over R10 000**, Twiggy and Daniel have also earned a spot in the ‘Pit of the Year’ grand final with a further R30 000*** in cash and prizes up for grabs.
Jaco Steyn gets ridiculously tubed in the Mentawais.
The other standout ride from the August leg was Jaco Steyn’s absolutely perfect pit ridden in the Mentawais recently. The length of time the weskus local spends in the tube had the judges attention plus 45.35% of the votes from the public, but in the end it fell just short of the 52.53% of the total votes* Twiggy’s ride claimed in the end to seal victory.
Leg 4 of the Monster Pitstop is now open for entries, so if you’ve got an epic tube of your own that you’d like to submit go to monsertpits.co.za and get in the running.
* HOW THE VOTING WORKS:
• The public vote and judging panel’s vote is split 50-50
• This means each of the three judge’s votes count 16.67% of the overall vote (to make up the judges’ 50% of the vote).
• The public vote for each surfer is then worked out as a percentage of the total number of public votes across all contestants and divided by two to work out how much it contributes to the other 50%.
It sounds complicated, but makes sense when you do the sums. So let’s do the maths for the top two rides who were in the running this month:
Twiggy Baker
3x judge’s vote = 50.00%
Total public votes across all the contestants = 752
Twiggy’s public votes: 38 votes = 5.05% of 752 / 2 = 2.53%
= 52.53% of votes overall
Jaco Steyn
0x judge’s vote = 0%
Total public votes across all the finalists = 752
Jaco’s public votes: 341 = 45.35% of 752 / 2 = 22.68%
= 22.68% of votes overall
** THE WINNER OF EACH LEG RECEIVES:
For the Surfer:
R5000 hamper from O’Neill
For the Videographer:
Vestal Brig Tide & Train Watch – valued at R2975
Skullcandy Shrapnel Local Only Speaker – valued at R899
Skullcandy Riot Buds – valued at R299
Neff Cap – valued at R399
Neff Watch – valued at R499
Neff Daily Sunglasses – valued at R299
*** PIT OF THE YEAR WINNER RECEIVES:
For the Surfer:
R15 000 cash + Vestal Heirloom Watch valued at R5,500
For the Videographer:
R10 000 cash + Skullcandy Air Raid Speaker valued at R1,999