Triple Crown of Surfing on the North shore Of Oahu

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is a Hawaiian specialty series of professional surfing events, offering three events to men and three events to women. For the men, those events are the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa Ali’i Beach Park; the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach; and the Billabong Pipeline Masters at the Banzai Pipeline. The women’s events are the Vans Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa Ali’i Beach Park; the Roxy Pro at Sunset Beach; and the Billabong Pro Maui at Honolua Bay, Maui.

All events, with the exception of the women’s Billabong Pro Maui, are staged on the North Shore of Oahu – a coastline world famous in surfing terms for its clockwork winter swells that reach 50 feet in height.

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is second only to surfing’s world title as it is considered to be the ultimate test of a surfer’s ability to master the big waves at three unique venues – each with its own set of challenges for the surfer.

In addition to individual event champions, the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing crowns an overall men’s and women’s champion each year. This goes to the surfer who has performed best across all three competitions, making them the most proficient big-wave rider in the world.

The first event of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing — the Hawaiian Pro — wrapped up Saturday, and the results there have raised the bar on how many points up-and-coming Qualifying Series (QS) surfers still need to make the cutoff for the 2016 Championship Tour. The next contest in the series, the Vans World Cup, is worth 10,000 more QS points, and for many of the surfers on the cusp of qualifying, it’s their last chance to make the leap to the CT in 2016.

Before the action kicks off, here’s the rundown of what happened at Haleiwa’s Hawaiian Pro, and who to look for at Sunset’s World Cup.

How it works: Only the top 10 surfers on the QS rankings who aren’t already qualified with CT points qualify to make the leap up to the higher-tier Tour. That means the Vans World Cup comes with a lot of pressure for surfers who are close to qualifying.