Julian Wilson kicked off the event with the lowest heat total in the whole of Round 1, managing just one wave, worth 1.23, in his match-up with Joel Parkinson and Micro. It was a showing more or less in keeping with his whole season, but the contrast with the later rounds could not have been greater. He surfed the contest of his life.

The various plots and subplots in play at this year’s Pipe Masters could scarcely have coalesced more perfectly. Wilson and Medina were the two standout surfers of the event. They also have history, of course. They’ve met in two finals before, each decided more or less on the buzzer, each by a fine margin. In the second of these the result was controversial, and Medina and co.’s post-heat reaction even more so. Julian has still only ever won contests by beating Medina in the final.

Then there was the Triple Crown. With Dusty Payne exiting in Round 3, and Michel Bourez in Round 5, Julian could overtake them both by winning the contest.

And then there was the final itself. 19.63 to 19.2 – by far the biggest-scoring heat of the event, including the only perfect 10, and following on from several rounds of low scores and inconsistent waves. Both surfers clocked big scores in the first two minutes; both clocked big scores in the last two minutes, taking off on consecutive waves. As in Portugal two years earlier, the scores didn’t come in until both surfers were back on the beach, the heat finished. Either could have won.

The differences were striking too, though. It’s easier to accept defeat when you’ve just won a world title, and when defeat is probably the right result, or at least not obviously the wrong one; even so, the grace and goodwill shown by Medina towards Julian represented a kind of redemption.

And if all this didn’t sound quite scripted enough, when Julian went to hug her after the final, Lyndie Irons’ breasts fell out.