Fourth Monster Pitstop Winner Is…

September has come and gone, which means it’s time to announce the next monthly winner of the Monster Pitstop in association with O’Neill, Vestal, Skullcandy and Neff. A number of epic tubes were entered into Leg 4, with three rides in particular making it tough for the judges to pick a winner. But after all the votes were counted*, Casey Grant’s pit filmed by Steven Michelsen in the Eastern Cape came out on top.

“It was hard to separate Twiggy’s ride from Casey’s,” said Joel Gray from Monster, one of the Pitstop judges. “In the end though, I chose Casey’s. Basically Twiggy’s is just an insanely perfect and beautiful-looking wave that is double rad, but Casey’s looks more tricky and a touch more naughty. I love the massive first hit too, then combo-ing that into a thick warping, sand-dredging tube is pretty epic.”

That was the difference between the two rides in the case of Zigzag’s vote as well, with Casey earning the nod slightly ahead of Twiggy, while Jaco Steyn’s long barrel at Desert Point was also among the three in consideration for the win this month. The feeling around the Zag office was that both waves were of a similar size and their tubes roughly the same length too, but Casey was made to work harder for his exit while Twiggy’s wave did most of the work. Still, it was a close call. Here’s a look at Twiggy’s ride again.

Casey and videographer Steven not only win this month’s prize** worth over R10 000 for claiming the win in Leg 4, but they also become the fourth of five contenders in the ‘Pit of the Year’ grand final that has over R30 000*** in further cash and prizes up for grabs.

The final leg of the Monster Pitstop has just kicked off, with the fifth and last spot in the ‘Pit of the Year’ finals at stake. Get your entries in before the end of October on monsterpits.co.za, where you’ll also be able to check out the other entries and vote for your favourite.

Here’s the bonus water angle of Casey’s ride captured by Alan van Gysen.

* 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 that were in the running this month:

Casey Grant
2x judge’s vote = 33.33%
Total public votes across all the contestants = 307
Casey’s public votes: 16 votes = 5.21% of 307 / 2 = 2.61%
= 35.94% of votes overall

Twiggy Baker
1x judge’s vote = 16.67%
Total public votes across all the finalists = 307
Twiggy’s public votes: 69 = 22.48% of 307 / 2 = 11.34%
= 28.01% 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