These big historic moments. When they happen, they never seem that way.
This was just Simon surfing. The big Australian with no love for the limelight, just doing his thing.
He was no show-off. But his board was.
Nobody rode three fins in Hawaii back then. Nobody was even thinking about three fins back then until April that year, when Anderson debuted the thing he called the Thruster at massive Bells Beach and blew every pro surfer's mind.
Hawaii was another step. But Pipe? Was it a step too far?
The answer came in the form of a 7'6" Thruster swallowtail shaped by Simon's Californian buddy Gary McNabb. Under Simon's feet, that board did things no other board could do.
The Thruster passed the acid test, and not for the first or last time, Pipe had changed the sport.