In the 4th heat of the quarterfinals, Michel Bourez had one goal: to beat San Clemente young gun Griff Colapinto in order to stay in the running for the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing win. After pocketing a 5th-place finish at the Hawaiian Pro and 25th at Sunset, Bourez needed to sneak into the semis today at Pipe (and finish ahead of Slater) in order to claim his maiden VTCS title.

Unfortunately for the heavy-footed Tahitian, young Griff looked in form, throwing caution to the wind and tucking into draining tubes until the dying minutes of the heat, crushing Bourez’ VTCS dreams in the process.

Photo Credit: Sloane

Which left Kelly Slater, at 47 years young, to claim his third VTCS trophy, his first since 1998, which, strangely enough, was actually the year young Griff was born. Slater had the chance to continue on his Pipeline quest after the VTCS win and secure the second spot on the U.S. Olympic team, but was taken out in the semifinals by title contender Italo Ferreira, who decided to cooly put the GOAT in a combo situation at the outset of the heat.

With Florence falling to Gabby Medina in the quarters, Slater needed to win the whole shebang in order to land a spot in Tokyo. Remember, Kolohe Andino secured the first spot on Team USA a couple months ago, leaving that second slot open for the taking between Slater, Florence and Seth Moniz. But with Seth bowing out earlier in the day and Slater taking a knee in the semis, it’ll be the North Shore’s golden child who will be repping red, white and blue next year in Tokyo. Which is actually quite amazing if you think about it, considering Florence missed nearly half of the ‘CT season due to a ruptured his ACL.

As for the rumors that this might be Slater’s final year on tour, well, Slater shut down that piece of speculation during his post-heat interview when Rosy asked what the GOAT’s plans were for 2020: “I might have to do one more lap,” he said, adding a laugh. “It took me until now to get myself comfortable in heats….Even with 10 minutes left and I was comboed I felt calm….Sometimes you need that year to jump in and get back going.”