Pancho Sullivan is not your average surfer, let alone an average trials surfer.

He showed why he is one of the best in the world by winning the Billabong Monster Energy Pipeline Pro yesterday.

The final day of the four-day event was run in wave-face heights that ranged from 4 to 8 feet at the Banzai Pipeline.

"Even though it's not real Pipe, I was really inspired by how good everybody was surfing the whole event," said Sullivan, who is 34 and from Sunset Beach. "The level of surfing was just incredible. There were 8s and 9s in every heat, and quite a few 10s. It inspired me to surf at the highest level I can."

Sullivan was at another level in the 30-minute final. He led for most of the heat, and clinched the win with a perfect 10 for a nice barrel ride with 13 minutes remaining.

"I just lucked out," Sullivan said. "Fred (Patacchia) went for the first wave and the second wave just happened to be a little better. That's how contests go. A lot of times it boils down to being lucky."

After making it out of the barrel, he completed a roundhouse cutback maneuver.

"I came out of the barrel and was really excited and wanted to put an exclamation point on it," he said.

Sullivan surfed a near-perfect heat, scoring a two-wave total of 18.75 (out of 20). He received $7,000 for the victory.

Sullivan was ranked No. 7 in the world in 2007, but had to surf in the trials round for this contest because of a late registration.

Normally, a surfer with his high ranking would have received a bye for the first three rounds. What's more, the waves were not in "classic" Pipeline form, so the famous barrels were difficult to find.

"When the conditions are like this, you have to learn how to adapt," Sullivan said. "Even though this isn't classic Pipe, the waves today were better than 90 percent of the events all over the rest of the world."

Fred Patacchia Jr. of O'ahu's North Shore placed second, despite conceding the victory to Sullivan with 10 minutes remaining in the heat.

After watching Sullivan receive his perfect 10, Patacchia rode a wave to the beach. He then got a bodyboard from his friends and paddled back out to the waves, much to the delight of the crowd on the beach. He caught a wave on the bodyboard, then bodysurfed another wave later in the heat.

"People might look at it as I gave up, but I was just having fun," he said. "I want to win as much as the guy next to me. I just think Pancho was in the right rhythm today."

Kaua'i surfers Roy Powers and Dustin Barca placed third and fourth, respectively.

Barca was suffering from flu-like symptoms all week, but still managed to reach the final. He also earned an invitation to the prestigious Billabong Pipeline Masters in December.

"That's the main thing," Barca said. "I wanted to do good in this contest, but I also wanted to get in for the Pipe Masters and I did."

FINAL RESULTS

1, Pancho Sullivan, $7,000. 2, Fred Patacchia Jr., $3,500. 3, Roy Powers, $2,500. 4, Dustin Barca, $2,000. 5 (tie), Makuakai Rothman and T.J. Barron, $1,500. 7 (tie), Marcus Hickman and Ian Walsh, $1,000. 9 (tie), Ola Eleogram, Kekoa Bacalso, Nathan Carroll and Jesse Merle-Jones, $900. 13 (tie), Matt Mohagen (California), Wiggolly Dantas (Brazil), Devon Tresher (Florida) and Daniel Jones (Hawai'i), $800.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.