In the closing minutes of the ‘98 Pipe Finals, 17-year-old wild card Bruce Irons needed a big score to stake his victory over Australian Jake "the Snake" Patterson. With under a minute left, Bruce found a long righthander, got spat out, and straightened towards the beach, where his friends were already gathering to chair him to the podium. With less than ten seconds in the heat and blocked from the left by local surfers entering the lineup, Patterson paddled into a head-high righthander that he felt certain was a closeout. He pumped his oversized 7'4" through the long fast section, traveled further than he expected, and squeaked out through the doggy door in time to double-fist claim the win.
