Congratulations, John John Florence for defending your Volcom Pipe Pro title, and taking the win in the last seconds of the best final in Pipeline and surfing history. John John nailed a perfect 10 in the final and backed it up with a 9.33 in the waning moments of the final to beat Jamie O’Brien, Kai Barger and Nate Yeomans.

“I wrote myself off half way through,” said Florence. “Kai and Jamie both had nines. I can’t believe it. Here at Pipe anything can happen.”

Jamie was in the lead the whole heat till the final 30 seconds, and had John John needing a combination of scores to win. In the last half of the final, Florence nailed a 10-point ride to put him within striking distance of JOB. The 19-year-old, World Tour surfer conceded to Jamie, but then a right popped out of nowhere.

The winning wave. On a normal day at the Banzai Pipeline, nobody would even think of taking off on this Backdoor beast, but needing something drastic, John John pulled in and exited the the tube to victory. Photo: Bielmann

“With 40 seconds to go I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was like, yeah Jamie, congratulations, I won last year and I’m stoked for you,” said Florence. “Then I turned around and there’s a peak. I didn’t even know if he was going. I was going to go left and backdoor the peak, then I ended up having to fade, go right, and barely got under it. It was a wild ride.”

John John barely made the bottom turn and pulled into an ugly barrel, disappeared and reemerged in the white wash with the victory. Before the judges announced the 9.33 score, Florence’s supporters were already chairing him up the beach in victory. This final was more dramatic than the ‘O6 Pipe Masters when A.I. beat Slater after being comboed because this was the second consecutive year John John took out his mentor Jamie O’ Brien at their homebreak. See the final day highlights below.