This year there were just two wildcard places in the Pipe Masters. This in itself was controversial. For the last few years that figure had been eight, and before that sixteen, but the new-look ASP decided to bring the Pipe format in line with the rest of the tour.

The selection process would be the Pipe Invitational, featuring a field comprised of thirty-two Pipe specialists, six of whom were to be chosen by sponsors – two by Vans, four by Billabong. Bruce Irons expected Billabong would offer him a place and thus the chance to qualify for Pipe proper – held, after all, “In Loving Memory Of Andy Irons”.

But Billabong did not, and soon after the line-up was announced, the following message appeared on Bruce’s Instagram account:

Not long after it had been posted, it was deleted.

The decision not to run heats that Saturday afternoon meant that Bruce was able to grab himself a few at Pipeline, and the irony did not stop there. The photo at the top of the page appeared on the Instagram account of Indonesian surfer Betet Merta, and Bruce left the following comment: “That’s on my brothers 7’2 Js”.