[author]Eve Jeffery[/author]
Byron Bay’s Kieren Perrow has waited a long time to win a world-class surfing title, and for it to be the Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii was the icing on this year’s Christmas cake.
We spoke to Kieren’s mum Susan Perrow, who was ecstatic with her son’s win.
‘He had a lot of interviews… but we managed to speak for a few minutes on Skype,’ she said.
‘We have watched for 16 years as he came fourth or second or third and to not get it last year in the last minute was terrible.’
As reported in yesterday’s Echonetdaily, Perrow rose from the ashes of a devastating eleventh-hour loss last year to Frenchman Jeremy Flores to win this year’s event over compatriot Joel Parkinson.
‘When the hooter went on the weekend and he had won, I actually started sobbing. He is so deserving.’
Susan says that even as a child she knew what an important event the Pipeline Masters was.
‘It’s iconic. Everyone knows about it. You never imagine your son could win it. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep last night, but it was so delicious to just lie awake and bathe in the joy of it.’
Perrow’s win, which was celebrated in Hawaii with his brother Simon and his wife Danielle and their two children, will carry him onto next year’s ASP World Tour.
Before that, he will come home and spend Christmas with his family.
‘I can tell you that will be one very big celebration,’ says Susan.
Taking out the 30th crown in the world-renowned Pipeline Masters, Perrow adds his name to a long a list of esteemed Aussie surfers who have held the title including Mark Richards, Simon Anderson, Mark Occhilupo and Tom Carroll and, more recently, Bede Durbidge and Taj Burrow.
