When it comes to surfing waves at the Banzai Pipeline, Rob Machado may never retire.

Machado turned in a near-perfect performance in near-perfect waves to win the Monster Energy Pro yesterday.

The final day of the three-day contest was completed in traditional wave heights of 6 to 10 feet at the Banzai Pipeline.

"There were some beautiful waves today," said Machado, 32. "I can just sit here and watch it all day. It's an amazing place."

Machado had an amazing final heat, scoring 19.17 out of a possible 20 points, including a perfect 10 for a mind-boggling barrel ride.

Machado, who is from Cardiff, Calif., retired from surfing on the world tour five years ago. Since then, he enters only a few events per year.

"I'm retired I guess, huh?" he said with a smile. "I don't get a chance to compete a whole lot. I do maybe half a dozen events a year."

But all the contests at Pipeline are always on his schedule.

"I love surfing Pipeline," he said. "It's one way to go out and surf Pipeline with three other guys. That's a lot of fun right there."

Machado had several memorable performances at the Pipeline Masters when he was on the world tour, including a victory in 2000.

"Similar conditions," he said of the comparison between yesterday and 2000. "Some real perfect waves when they come in. You just had to wait for the right ones."

He got the perfect wave late in the final heat. With around seven minutes remaining in the 30-minute heat, Machado paddled into a curling 10-foot wave.

He took a late free-fall drop to the bottom of the wave, then maneuvered into the barreling section, where he disappeared from view for a few seconds. When he successfully made it out, he covered his face with his hands in disbelief.

"I was kind of waiting for a wave like that this whole contest," Machado said. "I just scratched into that thing with every last bit of energy I had, and then tippy-toed down the face and just held on."

Because the wave was breaking so fast, Machado said he almost didn't catch it.

"I was that close to pulling back, and I just threw myself over," he said. "I was like, this is the final, who cares if I break my board or break myself."

Earlier in the heat, Machado scored a 9.17 for another barrel ride. He received $10,000 for the victory.

Fred Patacchia Jr. of O'ahu's North Shore also surfed a strong heat, but had to settle for second place. His two best waves received scores of 8.73 and 7.0 for a total of 15.73.

"He's probably surfed triple times as many Pipe events as I have, and he's already a Pipe Master," Patacchia said of Machado. "It was pretty intimidating just going against him. I'm just glad that I kept it pretty close."

Maui's Ian Walsh also had an impressive final with a two-wave total of 14.0 to finish third.

Peru's Gabriel Villaran scored a perfect 10 in the quarterfinals, but could not find similar success in the final and placed fourth.

While the Pipeline Masters is a World Championship Tour contest, the Monster Energy Pro is a World Qualifying Series contest.

In short, more surfers are allowed to enter the Monster Energy Pro, which means more of the Pipeline "specialists" are in the field.

"There's so many heats where you look at it and go, 'wow, that could be a final,' " Machado said. "These are all the guys that surf Pipe all year long and there are some amazing surfers in this event."

As proof, Machado became just the fourth non-Hawai'i surfer to win the Monster Energy Pro in the 22-year history of the event (the last was Carlos Cabrero of Puerto Rico in 2000).

Spectacular barrel rides were on display throughout the day, and several surfers were eliminated despite posting high scores.

Hawai'i surfers Jason Shibata and Soloman Ortiz also scored perfect 10s earlier in the day.

Pancho Sullivan, the 2005 Monster Energy Pro winner, was eliminated in the semifinals.

"It's like a playground ... well, not really a playground because you're kind of cheating death on a few of those waves," Patacchia said. "But it's a surfer's dream to be out at Pipe with only three other guys on a day like this."

Hawai'i surfer Randall Paulson received the Todd Chesser Memorial Award for Sportsmanship.

Former world longboard champion Bonga Perkins scored a perfect 10 to win the longboard expression session.

The Monster Energy Pro awarded points to surfers aspiring to qualify for the 2007 World Championship Tour.

FINAL RESULTS

1, Rob Machado (California), $10,000. 2, Fred Patacchia Jr. (Hawai'i), $5,000. 3, Ian Walsh (Hawai'i), $3,000. 4, Gabriel Villaran (Peru), $2,400. 5 (tie), Dustin Barca (Hawai'i) and Nathan Carroll (Hawai'i), $2,000. 7 (tie), Pancho Sullivan (Hawai'i) and Tory Barron (Hawai'i), $1,700. 9 (tie), Damon Harvey (Australia), Reef McIntosh (Hawai'i), Soloman Ortiz (Hawai'i) and Masatoshi Ohno (Japan), $1,500. 13 (tie), Jason Shibata (Hawai'i), Aamion Goodwin (Hawai'i), Randall Paulson (Hawai'i) and Hank Gaskell (Hawai'i), $1,300.

LONGBOARD EXPRESSION SESSION

1, Bonga Perkins, $1,000. 2, Zach Howard, $500. 3, Keegan Edwards, $300. 4, Kai Sallas, $200.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.