On the eve of a world title show down at The Pipe Masters, the ASP (soon to be World Surf League) has been subject to a legal challenge from The Da Hui.

According to a report, which appeared on the local news this evening, a judge found in favour of the Da Hui who alleged that the ASP were employing a contest format that was illegal in Hawaii, to run The Billabong Pipe Masters in memory of Andy Irons.

Local legislation clearly stipulates that man-on-man heats are illegal and that there should always be four people in the water for a heat. The logic behindthe legislation is associated with the notion that man on man events take up too much time and leave too many waves unridden. Given the North Shore’s busy contest schedule, efforts are made to minimise the length of contests so that recreational surfers have the opportunity to ride waves during the peak, Winter season.

Despite the violation of the condition that states there should be four people in the water at all times, the ASP have stated that they will push ahead with the contest tomorrow.

Responding to the findings, the ASP VP of communications, Dave Prodan, told Tracks

“We respect Hawaii as an integral part of the surfing community, but the ASP is responsible for determining the world’s best surfers with the use of consistent competition formats at all the world-class venues we go to from Australia to Brazil, Fiji, South Africa, Tahiti, US, Europe and Hawaii.”

And commenting on what the Pipe Masters brings to the local community in terms of economic benefits, Prodan stated:

“In terms of economic study, the current administration has yet to run one, but previous event organizers have, and reported over $20 million infusion into the local economy each year with the VTCS.”

Veteran Hawaiian surfer, Stacey Moniz, expressed a very different point of view to local TV network, KGMB.

“There’s no respect for the law. There’s no respect for the judge. There’s no respect for the surfers.”

In many respects The Da Hui have the ASP on a technicality here. Although the ASP are running man on man heats at Pipe, they generally use the overlapping heat system, which ensures there are almost always four people in the water. In rounds one and four there are three people in the water, while the final is an exclusively man-on-man affair.

It seems likely that the legal challenge from Da Hui was prompted by the ASP’s decision to dramatically reduce the number of local surfers granted wildcards into the Pipe Masters. Under the former system, 16 local surfers were given Wildcards, while this year only two wildcard slots were made available and they had to be earned by finishing either first or second in the Trials. When the change to the system was announced by the ASP, Hawaiian Eddie Rothman posted a candid clip on Vimeo, which included the following provocative statement to The ASP. “Now that you threw this fucking punch, you don’t want to fight now, well fuck you!” Although Eddie has not formally stated that he is behind the legal challenge against the ASP, he is a longstanding spokesperson for the organization.

It seems there is also some disenchantment amongst the local community that Bruce Irons was not granted a wildcard into the event, which is named in honour of his brother. When asked about how he felt about being left out of both the trials and the main event Bruce told Tracks. “My brother wouldn’t be happy if he knew I couldn’t get into this event. Pipe means everything to me. I’ve been competing here for the last seventeen years and I’ve won it before.”

A world title might be decided tomorrow but right now the sideline drama is just as intriguing.