Kelly Slater has won his first WCT event of the year and ended his worst start to a season ever. With six events including the Slater hunting grounds of J-Bay, Trestles and Pipe, maybe getting his tenth this year is not out of the question.
Last night he rode his fourth board for the contest, a fairly standard 5'9" squash tail Merrick and he just seems to be able to pull that one manoeuvre that makes you shake your head.
The other finalist was Brazilian Adrian De Souza, who was in his second final of the year (losing to Parko at the Quikie Pro at Snapper Rocks), is having his best year yet. His surfing was worthy of his place in the final.
The waves were ok but most scoring rides were a fairly similar mix of vertical re-entries and the odd floater. This resulted in most heats being fairly close. Interestingly despite the waves being mostly lefts on one goofy footer (CJ) made it through to the quarter finals. This may have been because the waves tended to make backhand snaps look better than forehand re-entries.
The change of date seems to have worked and the event fits better in the middle rather than towards the end of the title race. Nothing has been worse than a World Champ decided because his competitors couldn't find any waves in two foot onshore closeouts. Only the photographers would have been disappointed as they wouldn't have been able to fill their quota of Brazilian G-string bikinis.
Slater has jumped into the top 10 for the first time this year. Parko remains at one but De Souza has moved to second with Fanning and Taj falling down a few spots. CJ and Parko are the only members of the top ten to not have a 17th as a throw away. Unlike last year everyone has managed to get through at least one heat.
CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 10:
1 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 3876 pts
2 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 3206 pts
3 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 3072 pts
4 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 3050 pts
5 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 2940 pts
6 – Bobby Martinez (USA) 2625 pts
7 – Tom Whitaker (AUS) 2532 pts
8 – Jordy Smith (ZAF) 2486 pts
9 – Kelly Slater (USA) 2430 pts
10 – Damien Hobgood (USA) 2342 pts
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