Tahiti Made History with More Than Waves

By all accounts, the 2014 Billabong Pro Tahiti was epic. With waves reaching more than double-overhead, a handful of huge wipeouts, and an unprecedented number of high scores, everything at the island lined up to make it historic.

One of Slater's Perfect 10s at Teahupo'o

The Champ goes big right off the bat at Teahupo'o.

Now that the action in the water is over, the ASP reported that fans who tuned in around the world made history as well: The webcast delivered 2.2 million hours of live competition and reached more than 12 million households on live television. Fans who tuned in for the Tahiti contest produced the largest live audience in the history of professional surfing. Here are some of the highlights:

Online:

• 2.2 million hours of live webcast watched
  
• Average watch time of 37 minutes
  
• 45 percent of the audience watched on a mobile device
  
• 1.9 million unique online visitors to aspworldtour dot com during the 11-day Tahiti event, 6.1 million visits total
  

Television:

• More than 12 million households reached from broadcast TV partners

Brazilian phenom Gabriel Medina talked to ASP's Pat Parnell in the Teahupo'o channel shortly after his Billabong Pro Tahiti win.

For fans who can't get enough, highlights from the 2014 Billabong Pro Tahiti will air on ABC Sports in the U.S. Sunday, September 7 at 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT. Just two days later, the elite tours kick off competition in San Clemente at the Hurley Pro and Swatch Women's Pro Trestles. The contests are slated to run September 9 - 20.

Online metrics from YouTube and ASP's analytics team. Television audience reach data from IMG, Aug. 19.