Heading into Round Three at the Billabong Pipe Masters Conner Coffin was breathing a sigh of relief. His qualification for 2017 was official thanks to a dominant Round Two win over Jack Freestone. And after Rookie of the Year frontrunners Stu Kennedy and Caio Ibelli suffered early exits, the Californian needed to just get past one more guy to get his hands on that honor...unfortunately for Conner it was Kelly Slater, who went into vintage Slater mode at Backdoor Pipe, earning a trip to Round Four, and securing the Rookie of the Year honor for Brazilian Caio Ibelli.