In a split decision between 14 incredible barrels entered, the winner of the June leg of the Monster Energy Pitstop in association with O’Neill, Vestal, Skullcandy and Neff has been decided. The first leg’s standout tube was…

Granville West chased the recent swell to Namibia’s Skeleton Bay and skilfully rode the deep pit seen above, scoring himself a R5000 hamper from O’Neill for his efforts. Kai Linder who filmed the ride, meanwhile, claims a collection of rad prizes** from Skullcandy, Neff and Vestal valued at over R5000 for himself. Their winning ride also becomes the first contender for ‘Pit of the Year’, which awards the best ride from the five months of competition an extra R30 000*** in cash and prizes. Granville’s ride scooped a 46.37% total of votes* to take this month’s victory.

“It was a really tough choice this month,” said Paul Canning from O’Neill, who is a former Dream Tour surfer and one of the Pitstop judges. “Even though Granville’s wave is not the biggest, I think he gets really deep and is behind the curtain for quite a while.”

Matt Bromley’s epic east coast barrel filmed by Kate Lovemore-Baker finished runner-up in the first leg with one of three judges votes and 7.27% of the public vote, while Casey Grant’s ridiculous ride from the same session also scored a vote from the judges but only 2.14% of the public vote to round out the Top 3.

Excellent rides by Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker and last year’s winner Benji Brand, were also in close contention.

Entries are now open for the July leg of the Monster Energy Pitstop, with another monthly prize** up for grabs plus the chance to become the second of five rides in the ‘Pit of the Year’ grand final.

Go to monsterpits.co.za to enter and to check out all the rides from the first leg.

*HOW THE VOTING WORKS:
• The public vote and judging panel’s vote is split 50-50
• This means each of the three judge’s votes count 16.67% of the overall vote (to make up the judges’ 50% of the vote).
• The public vote for each surfer is then worked out as a percentage of the total number of public votes across all contestants and divided by two to work out how much it contributes to the other 50%.
It sounds complicated, but makes sense when you do the sums. So let’s do the maths for the top three rides who were in the running this month:

Granville West
1x judge’s vote = 16.67%
Total public votes across all the contestants = 234
Granville’s public votes: 139 votes = 59.4% of 234 / 2 = 29.7%
= 46.37% of votes overall

Matt Bromley
1x judge’s vote = 16.67%
Total public votes across all the finalists = 234
Matt’s public votes: 17 = 7.27% of 235 / 2 = 3.64%
= 20.31% of votes overall

Casey Grant
1x judge’s vote = 16.67%
Total public votes across all contestants = 234
Casey’s public votes: 5 = 2.14% of 234 / 2 = 1.07%
= 17.74% votes overall

** THE WINNER OF EACH LEG RECEIVES:

For the Surfer:
R5000 hamper from O’Neill

For the Videographer:
Vestal Brig Tide & Train Watch – valued at R2975
Skullcandy Shrapnel Local Only Speaker – valued at R899
Skullcandy Riot Buds – valued at R299
Neff Cap – valued at R399
Neff Watch – valued at R499
Neff Daily Sunglasses – valued at R299

*** PIT OF THE YEAR WINNER RECEIVES:

For the Surfer:
R15 000 cash + Vestal Heirloom Watch valued at R5,500

For the Videographer:
R10 000 cash + Skullcandy Air Raid Speaker valued at R1,999