Pipeline Masters surfing: Australian Jack Robinson makes a winning start at Pipe

Is this Jack Robinson’s year for the world surfing title? He’s off to a flyer at the greatest challenge in surfing.

Jack Robinson starts his Pipe Masters by sitting on the sand and gently closing his eyes and wriggling into the lotus position to meditate or pray or contemplate, or all of the above, while connecting to the spiritual forces he believes are above.

He paddles out at the Miracle Mile on the North Shore of Oahu for his first heat of the World Surf League’s championship year. The clock has barely started moving when he gets cracking, swinging right at Back Door, because conditions are too small and fluky for Pipe’s real left-handers, searching for the thing every surfer is searching for. A tube. He curls into it like he’s comforting himself in a warm blanket.

Robinson could get barrelled blindfolded, in his sleep, with both hands tied behind his back. Only the Florida king Kelly Slater and Hawaiian John John Florence can match his expertness for going deep. On this occasion, Robinson’s takeoff is late and as sudden as an elevator drop. He crouches. Pokes his neck forward. Skims his fingers along the wall, caressing it like you might a fine piece of cotton. He zooms out of the foamball like he’s done a million times before, and will do a million times again, and eight points are in his back pocket from the judges.

Robinson ends up with 13.1 points to beat Mexican rookie Alan Cleland (8.43) and countryman Liam O’Brien (8.17). He’s the 2023 Pipe champion, the Olympic silver medallist from the Paris Games and consistently ranked in the top five in the world – without becoming the champ.

“Jack’s back,” he laughs after cruising through his first assignment of the year.

Robinson finished fourth in last year’s world title race after winning 75 per cent of his heats. Florence was No.1 despite a success rate of 72 per cent. To the suggestion he rarely seems to doubt his ability in any given heat, especially at Pipe, Robinson says: “Never. But still, we’re at Pipeline, just trying to be safe. Go out there and respect the wave. This was a beautiful way to start.”

Really, it was a sluggish start to the year. No elimination heats were held. everyone in the draw is still in the draw. Getting his hair wet for the first time in a while was the 52-year-old Slater.

Well, getting his scalp wet. Conditions nosedived from fluky to fairly ordinary but he scraped together 9.9 points to beat a couple of Brazilians, the world No.2 Italo Ferreira (eight) and Samuel Pupo (3.9), for his first win at Pipe in three years.

“Thank you,” he grinned. “Is that right? To some degree, it’s like riding a bike.”