Curren vs. Pottz in the finals of the 1991 ASP World Tour Wyland Pro at Alii Beach Park in Haleiwa, on the Noth Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, marked a clash of perhaps the two most impactful surfers of the era.

Who do you believe took the win?

The backstory:

In 1990, Tom Curren won his third world title, returning from semiretirement, and surfing through the trials with no seed to win 7 events, the first and only time anyone has ever won a world title from the trials.

With all Curren's accomplishments, he surprisingly still had never won an event in Hawaii. His stated goal was to win not only the event, but the Triple Crown, one of surfing's most prestigious accolades: the highest overall points leader from three events The Pipeline Masters, The World Cup at Sunset Beach, and The Haleiwa event.

The next season,1991, Curren surfed just 10 out of 17 events, once again growing disinterested in the tour with his goals shifting towards scoring epic waves and experimenting with unique surfboard designs.

In October '91, Maurice Cole made Curren two boards, a 7'3" and 7'8", both with heavy rocker in the nose and tail and a deep reverse vee bottom contour and flat tail.
The boards were shipped to Hawaii, and customs there lost them. Then, the day before the ASP Haleiwa Wyland Pro customs located the boards. Maurice drove like a madman from the contest area to The Kui Lima and back, fetching the boards and handing them off to Curren just in time for the contest. He rode the board in the contest, but without putting his sponsors stickers on the board, which proved to be a costly decision. Curren explains:

A couple days later, Tom paddled out to Backdoor on the 7'8" and layed down one of the nicest carves in the history of surfing, beautifully captured by legendary photographer Tom Servais.

In 1991, two years off his world title in 1989, Martin Potter was on a mission to change pro surfing with a much more aggressive style of competition surfing, incorporating technical high risk power moves in his heats. The face off of Potter vs. Curren was highly anticipated as they made the finals of the event.

Surfers:
Tom Curren
Martin Potter
Tom Carroll
Johnny Boy Gomes
Gary Kong Elkerton
Simon Law
Tony Moniz
Richie Collins
Dino Andino

Narrated and written by:
Tony Roberts

Music:
John Cipollina
Brian Grossman / Max Ryder



Additional Sources:
Maurice Cole mauricecole.com
Tracks Mag tracksmag.com.au
Surfer Magazine surfer.com

#realsurfstories #surfhistory #tomcurren