ServaisThe form of a world champ? We'll have to see after the Pipe Masters.

As I write this the swell to end all swells is already filling in. Typing from a back deck at Off The Wall, sets are piggybacking on top of one another, as the new, rising swell rapidly overtakes the old, fading swell. Whitewash is being fired 50 feet into the blue sky. The once crowded Pipe/Backdoor lineup is thinning quickly.

"What are we going to do?" asks my neighbor, Uncle Rico. "You think it'll wash through the yard up here?"

ServaisParko now ties Michael Ho with three World Cup wins.

I'm not equipped to answer those questions. How should I know? All I've been able to surmise is that the surf's going to be big. Damn big. Last I checked the buoy models were showing 32 feet at 18 seconds. We haven't seen those kind of numbers since Al Gore invented the Internet. And in my meager ten years of coming to the North Shore I've certainly never seen such things.

But I guess the point of this early account is not to ponder the great mysteries of the deep, but to report on Joel Parkinson's win today at the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. In a rare, surfable window, the contest rushed through a bare-knuckle brawl of a morning. By noon the final was set, and oh what a final it was.

ServaisMick Fanning was definitely the bloke to beat at Sunset this week, or at least that had to be what Parko was thinking.

In a preview to their showdown at Pipe, Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning were the two headliners in the final. Sunny Garcia filled the roll of local-boy-gone-good, while Dusty Payne played the wide-eyed, young 'QS qualifier. It couldn't have been scripted better.

Sunny jumped out to an early lead thanks to a heroically long tube. "I didn't know if I should punch out through the back or keep going," he was heard telling Reef McIntosh at lunch an hour after the final.

ServaisDusty Payne took forth in the final, but could care less considering he's now qualified for the World Tour in 2010.

But proving that the world title race is most definitely on, Parko made the day's loudest statement, catching a last-minute, go-ahead wave at the end of the final. "I didn't know how it was going to go out there," he said on the beach, "Anything can happen out at Sunset. Winning this feels as good as the first time."

Parko's now won at Sunset three times, tying Michael Ho. The reigning Triple Crown champ also leads this year's ratings going into Pipe, and after winning a $12,000 Nixon watch for the effort last year, he's eager to keep the streak alive.

But even with all the drama up at Sunset, the undeniable story of the day is the arrival of the swell.

"I'm just going to clear everything out of the yard and see what happens," said Rico, coming to terms with how he's going to batten down the hatches.

Myself? I've got a bottle or two of wine and I'm charging my cell phone. The swell's set to arrive in full force late tonight, and we've got a high tide at 8:00am. I'll be on the roof watching the show if you need me.

ServaisWith his second place finish today Sunny Garcia gets a wildcard into the Pipe Masters and a shot at his seventh Triple Crown title.