SLATER AND CURREN: BODYSURFING LEGENDS

The details with help from our usual main-man contributor Grant Washburn:

REACHING FOR THE FINS: The Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic is a quirky little contest full of underground legends who come out of the woodwork to catch a few perfect waves to themselves. It's a haven for lifeguards firemen electricians and the occasional surprise visitor -- like Kelly Slater and Tom Curren who switched gears along with Rob Machado to compete in this year's event.

Not that many people noticed. There was a public-address system but only to advise contestants of their heats and colors. People walking the beach had no idea that Slater was making a serious run at the finals or that Curren was out there in a heat with Mike Stewart and Mark Cunningham. This event is so low-key it inadvertently cultivates its distance from the mainstream.

Still you'll want to catch the video. Just to see Curren and his mind-blowing performance. To see Machado look right at home with a pair of fins. And to try to grasp the wonder of Slater who had already broken North Shore ground by winning the Eddie Aikau contest at 20-25-foot Waimea a few weeks earlier.

It seemed fitting that in the end the committed bodysurfers ruled. Stewart and Cunningham the best ever to grace Pipeline's savage barrels finished 1-2. They were joined in the finals by 51-year-old Hal Handley a Boomer Beach mainstay now based in Marin County and Hawaiian standouts Chris Baker Chris Robinson and Steve Kapela.

But the story grew broader this year giving the sport a much-needed boost."This is the gnarliest field I've ever seen here" said longtime entrant Alec Cooke of big-wave fame. "Slater Curren and Machado? Bodysurfing comes of age."

It was a sunny 8-foot day with a northwest swell offshore winds and some tapering A-frames -- not vintage Pipe by any means but perfect for bodysurfing. Slater frolicked through his first two heats looking ridiculously comfortable and finished one of them by intentionally taking a sick over-the-falls drop.

"Was that Slater." someone asked.

"Trying to kill himself? Yeah" said a smiling Cunningham and a lot of us were recalling a much better (and bigger) day in the previous week when Slater's bodysurfing tube ride provided one of the most stunning highlights.

Curren as always was surrounded by rumor and intrigue. He got into the contest mostly through the prodding of his North Shore friends (including top surfer Donavon Frankenreiter who also entered). It was first believed he was out there with no fins -- and hell when it comes to Curren you'll believe anything.

He did have fins but he also had consummate style a bag of tricks and raw aggression sending him on some long wild rides past the reef and onto the sandbar. While Machado couldn't get past the quarterfinals and Slater went out in the semis ("I just got out of synch") Curren found himself in an epic semifinal with Stewart Cunningham Baker Pete Johnson and formidable Wedge rider J.T. Nicholson. His saga ended there but not before Curren impressed everyone in the bodysurfing community.

The 46-year-old Cunningham who revolutionized the sport with his graceful mastery of big Pipeline in the late 70s and early 80s really cut loose in the semifinals raising the hopes of every lifeguard on the beach. But there was no stopping Stewart who generally strikes more of a dolphin-like presence than anything resembling a human being. Streaking through tubes and pulling his insane barrel rolls -- just like he performs on his bodyboard -- Stewart opened the finals with three strong rides and never looked back. It was his eighth Pipeline title and fifth in the last six years.