Taj wins

Taj Burrow as won the Coldwater Classic, beating Matt Wilkinson in the final. It's Taj's second win for the season.

Parko made the quarters and Slater round five which means it will all be decided at Pipe. Fanning has a slim chance but would need both of the others to drop out early and while he keeps going. My quick calculations have Slater currently leading on 48450, Parko 44700 and Fanning 38450. To guarantee win number 12 Slater would need to win one more heat than Parko. Parko would need to get at least ninth if he was to go out in the same round.

Lets hope for waves at Pipe.

Finals Day at Supertubos

Finals day for the Rip Curl Pro back at the primary location. The world title race is basically down to two now that Fanning bombed in round three. Kelly is in the water against Damo Hopgood in the quarters at the moment and the other title contender Jordy Smith has Pat Guduskas in quarter four. Next heat could be a killer if Owen Wright and Jeremy Flores bring their new school game.

Yesterday's round four non-elimination round was held in pretty standard beach breaks. Today is back at Supertubos but its not the classic conditions of the early rounds. Doesn't look like many tubes and if the few heats of round five I watched are the mark, the judges have lost the plot. They scored Damo Hopgood for high for two boring stock standard reos but Matty Wilkinson low for a couple of whacks and a big air because he "didn't ride out of it", despite it being on the last section of the wave, him clearly landing it and standing up in the soup.

The winner will be awarded later tonight. Coverage on the webcast and FuelTV

Taj robbed again

Round three has hit the water at the back up beachie. Taj scored the guinea pig first heat in okay onshore waves.

It seems again that Taj's opponent was over scored on his best two waves. Variety is meant to be part of the criteria but Matt Wilkinson's three decent backhand reos were all the same but he got an eight. His single move air reverse was a six ! Taj surfered big and smooth with big hacks and held the lead for most of the heat with fives but struggled to find a wave in the back end of the heat. He did get a square up with a wave with three massive smacks getting a nine but he needed a 9.1. That wave was probably overscored to make up but it wasn't enough. It looks like another year without a title for TB. Interestingly he wasn't riding a Firewire but a normal (and dented) board.

With the "swell of the century" not arriving the forecast isn't great and the current word from the contest is for the rest of round three today (six more hours) and then small beachies for the rest of the contest.