Pierre Louis Costes – Winner of Mike Stewart Pipeline Invitational

Pierre Louis Costes recently won the Mike Stewart Pipeline Invitational, the opening event for the season on APB World Tour. It was great conditions for the finals day with clean 6-10 foot waves. Pierre scored an impressive 19.26 to take win in the final over Jacob Romero, Jarred Houston and Lewy Finnegan.

Pierre, first of all congrats! Please take us through that final heat?

Thank you! What a day! Reaching the final was the first goal and I was happy already but I really wanted to win, I got close in 2009 with a second place and in 2013 with a 3rd place, I felt that this year, I could not lose the opportunity again.
The final started slow for me I guess, I had a good one but I did not make my move, then the other competitors all got some decents score and Jacob Romero from Hawaii was in a commanding lead. I guess my luck was the organizors decided to make a 40 minutes final instead of 30 because it was only in the last 10 I managed to get my two best waves, I scored a 9,43 for a Back flip on Pipe and 9,83 for an air reverse on Backdoor. This was easily the best day of my bodyboarding career. 

Pierre’s waves in the final heat:

You won the world title back in 2011. Now have given yourself a perfect start for this year, what is your thoughts for the rest of the season?

Yes, and it s true, I never started so well on the tour, it gives me confidence heading to the others events, I will chase a second world title and hopefully be able to give good performances on every venue.

 The next event is Teahupoo in April, how will you prepare yourself for that event? 

I’ve been to Tahiti before but I never surfed Teahupoo good, I’m pretty excited about it, if we could score good waves, that would be amazing, I will train in Portugal and France until there, maybe fly to Canaries for a swell, so far I’m happy to be home and enjoy the victory as it only gonna last for a month until heading to Tahiti.

Just a few weeks ago you injured your ear drum, what happened?

Yes, I went to surf Supertubos in Portugal, waves were firing but on my last wave, I hit the water very strong with my ear and busted my eardrum, the doctors told me I had a 3 mm perforation and I should stay out of the water for 2 months. I stayed out only 3 weeks and I did not surf until heading to Hawaii. I was looking for the best earplugs on the market and when I read about Surf Ears, I immediatey contacted them and after a few discussions and most important of all after testing their products and realize how great they were, I became an ambassador. They sent me the new version to Hawaii and I can proudly say I won the Pipeline Challenge using SurfEars earplugs during the entire event, they saved my Hawaiian season!