Kelly Slater is not the only surfing superstar from Florida.

C.J. Hobgood did something even the legendary Slater has not done by winning the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing men's contest yesterday.

The final day of the five-day contest was run in wave-face heights that ranged from 15 to 25 feet at Sunset Beach.

"You can tell me tomorrow that I won and I still won't believe you," said Hobgood, who is from Melbourne, Fla.

Hobgood, 29, became the first surfer from Florida to win the World Cup of Surfing. He also did it during a contest that featured some of the consistently biggest waves in the 26-year history of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.

"From beginning to end, you could say this was the biggest we've ever seen," said Randy Rarick, executive director of the Vans Triple Crown. "There's usually a day or two in there where it's small, but this was big every day."

Hobgood won the world championship in 2001, and is ranked No. 5 in the world this year. But he said yesterday's victory "ranks up there" with all his other major wins, mainly because he didn't expect himself to fare well in the challenging conditions.

"The biggest thing is because I never totally pictured myself winning this contest," Hobgood said. "It ranks that much higher because I never thought I had the ability to go out and do it."

Slater, who owns a record nine world championships, has won the Triple Crown title in the past, but has never won the World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. He did not enter the World Cup this year.

"I don't feel like I'm that good of a surfer out there, but that's Sunset for you," Hobgood said. "It'll make you look like a hero or it'll take the biggest, toughest, roughest, best surfer in the world and make him look like a peanut."

Hobgood won it in dramatic fashion, receiving a score of 8.5 (out of 10) for riding a massive wave in the closing minutes of the 35-minute final.

He had a two-wave final score of 15.0 to win the $15,000 first-place check.

Hobgood also became the first goofy-foot surfer in 11 years to win the World Cup of Surfing. Goofy-footers face left, and the wave at Sunset breaks to the right, so Hobgood was surfing with his back to the big waves.

"There's four guys out there, but you never really see your competitors the whole time," he said. "It's man versus nature out there and that's what makes Sunset so challenging and appealing."

The four-man final featured an international mix.

Tom Whitaker of Australia placed second, Marcus Hickman of Sunset Beach was third, and Jordy Smith of South Africa was fourth.

"The waves were impeccable — the best we've surfed on tour," Whitaker said. "And the surfing was amazing. As soon as you make a final on a day like this, it's special already."

Whitaker had the lead for most of the heat until Hobgood's final wave.

"C.J. is such a phenomenal surfer, all he had to do was take off on a big one and he'd get the score," Whitaker said. "The wave he got was just beautiful. I was on the inside, so I saw him take the drop and I knew he was going to get a good score."

Whitaker finished with a two-wave score of 12.67 and received $7,500.

Hickman was the top-placing Hawai'i surfer, and had perhaps the most impressive run of the entire contest. As an unseeded surfer, Hickman had to start from the first round and advance through seven rounds of competition over five days just to get to the final.

The top seeds — such as Hobgood — received byes into the fourth round.

The South African Smith was the most impressive surfer prior to the final. He received a perfect 10 in his morning heat for a long barrel ride. Then in the quarterfinals, he had rides that received scores of 9.07 and 9.0.

But in the final, Smith's surfboard leash broke, and he had to swim nearly 500 yards in the treacherous ocean to retrieve a new board.

Dusty Payne of Lahaina, Maui, tied for fifth place, but moved into the overall lead of the Triple Crown ratings.

The O'Neill World Cup was the second of three contests in the Triple Crown series.

Hobgood is second in the Triple Crown standings.

The O'Neill World Cup was also the final contest of the 2008 World Qualifying Series. The top 15 surfers from the final WQS ratings will move up to the elite World Championship Tour in 2009.

Hawai'i surfers getting promoted were Kekoa Bacalso of Mililani and Dustin Barca of Kaua'i.

Also, Yadin Nicol of Australia was named the Noseguard Triple Crown Rookie of the Year.

The third event in the Triple Crown — the Billabong Pipeline Masters — is scheduled for Dec. 8 to 20 at the Banzai Pipeline.

FINAL RESULTS

1, C.J. Hobgood (Florida), $15,000. 2, Tom Whitaker (Australia), $7,500. 3, Marcus Hickman (Hawai'i), $4,500. 4, Jordy Smith (South Africa), $4,400. 5 (tie), Dusty Payne (Hawai'i), Joel Parkinson (Australia), $2,700. 7 (tie), Mick Fanning (Australia), Ian Walsh (Hawai'i), $2,500. 9 (tie), Yadin Nicol (Australia), David Weare (South Africa), Kamalei Alexander (Hawai'i), Greg Emslie (South Africa), $2,400. 13 (tie), Rhys Bombaci (Australia), Torrey Meister (Hawai'i), Bede Durbidge (Australia), Dion Atkinson (Australia), $2,100.