Round two finally over

It seems to have been going for ever but the Quikie Pro in France has only just finished round two and then went on a break.

Taylor Knox continues his run beating Adriano De Souza and he'll take on young gun John Florence in the first heat of round three.Yadin Nichol is out as are both Hopgoods and Josh Kerr.


Taj takes on Kolohe Andino, who finally made it into the third round. Slater has Jadson Andre, Joel gets Pat Gudaskas but Mick Fanning has dangerman Dane Reynolds. A loss here would hurt his title run but not be fatal.

With five days left and nothing perfect on the forecast expect the event to be a bit of a luck fest.

What were they watching ?

Round one of the Hurley Pro was run overnight in small, slightly fat but contestable waves. The standard of the surfing was good but the judging was completely unfathomable. One surfer seemed to get a seven for some standard reos and someone else would get five for the same turns but an air reverse as well. The only consistencies were that vertical re-entries that popped the fins out the top of the wave were scored high and the top seed in each heat seemed to get the bonus points.

Watch the heats on demand that Parko, Taj, Slater and Julian Wilson won. They all did enough to win but compare their scores with the others in their heats. Jadson Andre in Parko's was throwing fins out turns for no return, yet Travis Logie was getting better scores for rides that I could have pulled off.

The judging just seems to get more confusing every event. One day airs are scored high, next its floaters, then its reos, then airs again, no wonder the ASP struggles to reach their dream of "mainstream audience" appeal. If someone who has surfed for 25+ years and watched competitive surfing for as long can't get close to working out the score then how do they expect a footy fan from Northam to understand it ?

It seems that there might be a lay day tonight but if not and you're up around 11.00 pm onwards then FuelTV is broadcasting plus a good webcast and iPad apps.
HURLEY PRO TRESTLES ROUND 1 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 11.96, Travis Logie (ZAF) 11.53, Jadson Andre (BRA) 11.00
Heat 2: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 15.43, Heitor Alves (BRA) 14.13, John Florence (HAW) 9.43
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.66, Adam Melling (AUS) 12.36, Chris Davidson (AUS) 9.80
Heat 4: Owen Wright (AUS) 13.60, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 13.37, Conner Coffin (USA) 11.87
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.57, Rob Machado (USA) 13.50, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 12.40
Heat 6: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.67, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.10, Tiago Pires (PRT) 12.13
Heat 7: Taylor Knox (USA) 13.70, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 13.50, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 10.80
Heat 8: Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.40, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 11.50, Kai Otton (AUS) 9.83
Heat 9: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.17, Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.87, Dusty Payne (HAW) 8.77
Heat 10: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.60, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 13.33, Alejo Muniz (BRA) 12.53
Heat 11: Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.00, Damien Hobgood (USA) 9.90, Daniel Ross (AUS) 6.75
Heat 12: Brett Simpson (USA) 12.40, Tom Whitaker (AUS) 11.94, Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.90

Finals Day

Final day starts in a few minutes in New York. Taj is first up against Jadson Andre. Slater is the only American left in the contest with the rest of the spots filled by Aussies or Brazillians. He will take on Josh Kerr who has been racking up huge airs and nine pointers all contest. Watch his round four heat for his "varial", punting, spinning his board under his feet and landing goofy (he is a natural). He followed it up with a huge alley oop.

With Parko out and Jordy not competing Kelly can consolidate a bit of a lead, especially if he wins. Taj can also make up some points after a couple of bad results.

Potentially one of the best heats is the fourth quarter between Owen Wright and Julian Wilson. Both will go big.

Looking at the webcast it look like there are still waves and at the moment it is offshore.

Slater is King of the World again

Although it seems that he is always number one Kelly Slater has moved to the top of the World Title Race after his second place in Brazil. The event was won by the youngest surfer in the contest, rookie and local boy Jadson Andre by less than half a point. It was his first win and now sees him into equal fourth with Mick Fanning.

Taj's 17th has dropped him to third 250 points behind Jordy Smith. However it is really early in the year. Hopefully the 17th will be one of TB's dropped scores. J-Bay and Teuphoo are coming up, both events he does well at, especially J-Bay.

BiLLABONG SANTA CATARINA PRO FINAL RESULTS:
1 - Jadson Andre (BRA) 14.40
2 - Kelly Slater (USA) 14.00

BILLABONG SANTA CATARINA PRO SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Jadson Andre (BRA) 17.70 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 16.67
SF 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.50 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 10.56

BILLABONG SANTA CATARINA PRO QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Jadson Andre (BRA) 15.50 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.27
QF 2: Dane Reynolds (USA) 14.27 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.17
QF 3: Owen Wright (AUS) 13.34 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 12.43
QF 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.43 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.87

BILLABONG SANTA CATARINA PRO REMAINING ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 5: Taylor Knox (USA) 15.93 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 14.83
Heat 6: Owen Wright (AUS) 13.60 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 8.90
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.27 def. Chris Davidson (AUS) 12.00
Heat 8: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.00 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 8.50

CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 5 (After Brazil):
1 - Kelly Slater (USA) 21750 pts
2 - Jordy Smith (ZAF) 18500 pts
3 - Taj Burrow (AUS) 18250 pts
4 - Mick Fanning (AUS) 15500 pts
4 - Jadson Andre (BRA) 15500 pts