After six days of absolutely perfect waves breaking like a natural machine, releasing spacious barrels on both sides, Californian Skip McCullough today took home one of the best championships of the year at the QS, the Cloud 9 Siargao Surfing Cup.

It was the first victory of his career and with the 3.000 points he rose 73 positions in the ranking, from 148th to 75th.

The Californian went through the rounds tube after tube and became the favourite for the title. Today he beat local Philmar Alipayo in the quarterfinals and Hawaiian Torrey Meister in the semis.

In the final he met another local, John Mark Tokong, and with a sea approaching too big for the spot, he found a good tube that was worth 7,5 to add to the 4,5 he had from the start of the series.

Tokong didn't find any good ones and lost needing a combination of results.

After being carried by his Latin friends, Lele Usuna and Carlos Goncalves, the Californian of Latin blood arrived at the commentators' booth and cried, hugging the announcer. “Dreams do come true,” he said. “You surf every day of your life to get to a day like today,” he added.

For his part, the Argentine Leandro Usuna, who had had a very good event, finished fifth, but was unable to win his quarterfinal series against the Australian Nicholas Squires, adding 1260 points and with this he rose 16 positions in the ranking, from 110 to 94.