Round Four

Taj, Fanning, Slater and Julian Wilson have all won their round four heats at the Quikie Pro and are straight through to the quarter finals.

The waves were short for Snapper Rocks but clean and rippable. The rumour is that there is a swell coming from a passing cyclone and the finals might be run in rifle speed tubes at Kirra.

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST REMAINING ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.23 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 13.34
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.00 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 12.50
Heat 9: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 12.63 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.37
Heat 10: Brett Simpson (USA) 12.16 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 9.53
Heat 11: Travis Logie (ZAF) 15.44 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.43
Heat 12: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.67 def. Nat Young (USA) 16.36

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 18.06, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.83, Adam Melling (AUS) 10.07
Heat 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 16.60, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.53, Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.13
Heat 3: Kelly Slater (USA) 18.27, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.60, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 16.44
Heat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) 15.40 Travis Logie (ZAF) 13.60, Brett Simpson (USA) 8.23

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 5 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 3: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 4: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST QUARTERFINAL MATCH-UPS:
QF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. TBD
QF 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. TBD
QF 3: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. TBD
QF 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. TBD

Betting

Got asked today by a guy with some money to bet for his betting club who to put the cash on the win the Quikie Pro. My answer Taj (at $11) or Josh Kerr (at $26).

Taj is the defending champ and has won four times (in the Quikie and QS Breaka) at Snapper over the last couple of years. Surely he has to catch a break and win a world title soon.

Kerr is the total package and now has a wiser head. If the waves are at Kirra you can write off all the goofies and the power face surfers so Kerr will come into his own.

There's some pretty good odds, even the favourite Kelly Slater is paying $5.50. I think Fanning is a bit over rated at $7 and the third line of betting. Jordy Smith at $10 is strange. Its been a few years since he was on his game and he's never won here. Seabass Zeitz is $41 in his first world tour event above people like Michel Bourez, Bede Durbrige and both Hopgoods, all people with wins and years of experience on the world tour ?

I'm sure I have jinxed my picks but what can you do.

Pipe

Parko in the water at the moment hoping to get through and closer to a world championship. He is up against Pipe local Kalani Chapman.

In the first three heats of round three all the highest seeded pros have lost, including John Florence and Julian Wilson. Slater takes on Billy Kemper in heat nine, while Taj has Yadin in heat 10 and Mick Fanning has the hard task of Shane Dorian in the last heat of the round.

Conditions are pretty good but a bit smaller than yesterday. There is some wind messing the lefts a little.

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.

Tricked

Looking at the surfcam first thing in the US morning it didn't look like there would be much surfing going on at Steamer Lane overnight but it cleaned up.

Round two and most of round three were done and resulted in the World Title will go to Pipeline, with Slater and Parko through to round four. However John Florence was knocked out of the race and Mick Fanning's chances took a kick with both losing in round two for 33rds.

Round one wasn't good for the top seeds and round two wasn't better. Round three was pretty bad as well.

Taj is still in the event and Yadin is in the first heat of the day.

O’NEILL COLDWATER CLASSIC ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.83 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 12.17
Heat 2: Travis Logie (ZAF) 14.67 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.13
Heat 3: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.53 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 14.77
Heat 4: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 11.10 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 10.23
Heat 5: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 13.33 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.30
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.63 def. Nat Young (USA) 12.43
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.84 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 14.77
Heat 8: Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.40 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 5.27

O’NEILL COLDWATER CLASSIC ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 11.20 def. Jason Collins (USA) 9.40
Heat 2: Jadson Andre (BRA) 14.10 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 14.06
Heat 3: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 14.50 def. John John Florence (HAW) 8.66
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.43 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 11.50
Heat 5: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 14.44 def. Julian Wilson (AUS) 13.67
Heat 6: Owen Wright (AUS) 10.63 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 8.27
Heat 7: Damien Hobgood (USA) 15.50 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.94
Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.47 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.53
Heat 9: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 18.33 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 12.60
Heat 10: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 12.17 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 10.53
Heat 11: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 15.10 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.06
Heat 12: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 13.40 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 9.07

Coldwater Classic

The O'Neill Coldwater Classic at Steamer Lane has started in pretty decent surf. Taj has just won his round one heat and is only the second top seed to make it straight through to round three so far. Parko was the other one.

That means that the other three title contenders (Slater, Fanning and Florence) are into the elimination round two.

The webcast is at http://www.oneill.com/cwc/ and its live on FuelTV. Being in the US its late at night going into the early morning.

Finals day

Pretty clean conditions for the final day of the Rip Curl Pro Portugal.

Mick Fanning was taken down in round five, giving him a ninth and 2250 more points than Slater in this event. Parko met John John in the quarters and won. This gives JJ a fifth and 3450 points over Slater and 1200 over Fanning.

Parko will meet Gabriel Medina in the semis, with the other between Julian Wilson and the winner of the quarter in the water at the moment.

At this stage the Mick's ninth is a keeper, John John will have nothing lower than a fifth. Regardless of what happens from now on Parko will have nothing lower than a third.

My literally back of the envelope calculations tell me that Parko would have to win to overtake Kelly after dropping the worst two events to this stage.

Kelly Slater - 45 400
Parko - 3rd 43 500, 2nd 45 000, 1st 47 000
Fanning - 43 500
John Florence - 38 600

Kelly's two bad events (really three) only drop his raw total by a small amount compared to the others (especially Parko) who drop big points. His four finals and three wins are keeping him in the race against the consistent but not winning Parko. Looks like it might go down at Pipeline, hopefully in some decent waves.

Hold

The Rip Curl Pro in Portugal is burning through the waiting period. No consistent surf for a few days and now a massive storm is bering down on the contest site. The commentators are trying to talk it up but they are also trying to lay the foundations for a move to one of the back up venues where the wind will be side rather than onshore.

It's day 8 of 11 and they still have the bulk of round three to go. Even though it stays light for ages they still need a solid two days to run the event. It will be hard to squeeze out any extra time as the Cold Water Classic starts in the US on 1st November.

As usual Taj will be in the guinea pig first heat of whatever day they run. He always seems to end up going first and when the conditions are likely to be suspect he draws someone who can fluke a few waves and win. This time its Kolohe Andino who is desperate for any sort of result after not living up to his publicity so far. He is in danger of falling off the tour so will be a danger man for TB.

Yadin has Mick Fanning. The waves could be big and lean toward Mick because his poo stance isn't as suspect as in smaller waves. Parko will have to watch out for Dusty Payne and the rest of the heats are pretty even and could go either way depending on wave size and quality.

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 5: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 8: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 9: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 10: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
Heat 12: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Yadin Nicol (AUS)

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.

Hurley burley

Slater's win at Trestles was his third title in a row, his 50th career win and continues his almost ridiculous winning streak there. He has moved up to third with four very winnable events to go in Europe, mainland US and Hawaii. If you drop the worst two results of the surfers Kelly is actually leading by 700 points. If he was to match or beat Parko and Mick for the rest of the season he would be the winner.

Taj dropped one spot to fall out of the top five with his fifth place finish. Yadin stayed out 27 and hadn't made it past round three this year.

The next event starts at the end of next week in France, followed two days later in Portugal.

Quarter Final One

Will be Mick Fanning v Taj as Mick has just narrowly beaten Julian Wilson.

This will be a tough draw for the West Aussie as Mick has been getting over scored consistently in the last few events.

Waves are good but inconsistent. The event will finish today.

Tired

Sat up (really laid in bed) watching the first three heats of the Hurley Pro last night. The waves early were clean and glassy but a little funky. Everyone was blowing moves and needed to be a bit conservative to get the scores. By afternoon it was onshore and ramping, making airs the go.

In heat two of round three Julian Wilson won riding the wining waves as the siren sounded. Next heat Taj won with the winning wave coming in the last 30 seconds. No surprises in the rest of the round with Yadin losing to John Florence.

Taj won his round four super heat against Slater and Julian Wilson, heading straight to the quarter finals. Wilson will take on Mick Fanning and Slater has Jeremy Flores.

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES ROUND 5 MATCH UPS:

Heat 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Mick Fanning (AUS)

Heat 2: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)

Heat 3: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)

Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Gabriel Medina (BRA)

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES NON ELIMINATION ROUND 4:

Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.93, Julian Wilson (AUS) 12.60, Kelly Slater (USA) 11.20

Heat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 17.23, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 15.97, Mick Fanning (AUS) 10.17

Heat 3: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.87, Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.40, Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.63

Heat 4: John John Florence (HAW) 18.57, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 16.27, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.67

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES ROUND 3 RESULTS:

Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.70 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 10.00

Heat 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 14.03 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 12.34

Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.60 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 14.30

Heat 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 16.20 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 12.23

Heat 5: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 18.13 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 8.93

Heat 6: Mick Fanning (AUS) 15.34 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 13.33

Heat 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.33 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 13.33

Heat 8: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.37 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 17.06

Heat 9: Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.53 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 9.67

Heat 10: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 17.20 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 15.77

Heat 11: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.67 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 10.90

Heat 12: John John Florence (HAW) 14.44 def. Yadin Nicol (AUS) 9.90

Surf Movie Sunday

Got a busy day ahead so the movies are in early.

Analog have released their latest movie with plenty of waves from around the world.



Mick Fanning, Owen Wilson and others at Trestles. The Trestles Pro starts tonight.



Dean Morrison in the WA desert.



And finally a Greg Long profile for the big wave heroes.

Judge for yourself

Does claiming pay ?




Chopes is such a one dimensional wave that judging is so difficult. Every pit that someone makes is basically the same so winning is more pot luck that really beating someone. I don't think Fanning's waves were better or worse than Parko's but I much prefer Parko's smooth style to Mick's poo stance.
Chopes is a world class wave on it's day but is it a world class competition wave ? Especially when we move on to two more barrel riding contests before years end, Supertubos is Portugal and the real left hand tube riding test Pipeline.

Mick wins

Mick worked his way out of a combo with 4 minutes to go to beat Parko at Chopes.

As predicted the surfer making claims after each wave came out on top. Mick could have been Brazilian ! The super deep tubes helped as well !

Mick vs Joel

Joel just beat John Florence and will meet Mick Fanning in the final after a short rest.

The waves are nice but inconsistent. As usual with Teahupooo each ride is either a eight or a two so its anyones event.

Billabong Pro

Inconsistent waves for day two and round two. Most of the top ranked surfers got through with the exceptions being a rapidly fading Bede Durbridge and Jordy Smith, who would have been to big for the little tubes. Yadin Nichol also dropped out and adds another 33rd to his season.

Round three looks like this -

Heat 1: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 4: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA)
Heat 5: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Ricardo dos Santos (BRA)
Heat 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 9: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA)
Heat 10: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 11: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Heat 12: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)

Much will depend on the conditions but Mick Fanning and Joel need to look out. If it is big Taj and Adriano will have a tougher day.

Watch the highlights from the first two days and look for Josh Kerr's double barrel right on day one !

Nearly over

First semi in the water. Parko vs Mick in glassy waves. Plenty of closeouts but some barrels and ramps.

Second semi John Florence v Josh Kerr.

Watch it on FuelTV and the net.

Round three

Round three of the blokes and Mick Fanning is out. So too is John Florence but generally the top seed won each heat. That means TB through but Yadin out.

Round four is non-elimination.

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 2 RESULTS:
HEAT 1: Owen Wright (AUS) 14.90 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 14.50
HEAT 2: Josh Kerr (AUS) 15.50 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 14.90
HEAT 3: Adriano De Souza (BRA) 14.07 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.74
HEAT 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) 14.36 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 10.83
HEAT 5: Heitor Alves (BRA) 15.07 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 12.84
HEAT 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.36 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 12.40
HEAT 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.50 def. Yadin Nicol (AUS) 12.27
HEAT 8: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 12.67 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. 11.17
HEAT 9: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.83 def. Raoni Monterio (BRA) 12.20
HEAT 10: Julian Wilson (AUS) 18.57 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 15.63
HEAT 11: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 16.03 def. John John Florence (HAW) 13.60
HEAT 12: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.20 def. Travis Logie (AUS) 13.16

UPCOMING QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 MATCH-UPS:
HEAT 1: Owen Wright (AUS), Josh Kerr (AUS), Adriano De Souza (BRA)
HEAT 2: Michel Bourez (PYF), Heitor Alves (BRA), Kelly Slater (USA)
HEAT 3: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Miguel Pupo (BRA), Jordy Smith (ZAF)
HEAT 4: Julian Wilson (AUS), Adrian Buchan (AUS) Taj Burrow (AUS)

ROXY PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 3 RESULTS:
HEAT 1: Tyler Wright (AUS) 16.20, Sarah Mason (NZL) 12.80, Silvana Lima (BRA) 9.63
HEAT 2: Laura Enever (AUS) 16.83, Paige Hareb (NZL) 14.07, Carissa Moore (HAW) 13.57
HEAT 3: Malia Manuel (HAW) 14.53, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 12.90, Courtney Conlogue (USA) 10.64

Quikie Pro France

The Quiksilver Pro has started in France. Round one is done and round two is in the water right now.

Taj is through to round three as is Slater, the back from injury Jordie Smith and Fanning. Young guns Owen Wright and Julian Wilson also topped their first heat.

The big casualty so far is Parko, who has just been eliminated by a Moroccan wildcard in a heat where neither had a double figure two wave score.

The waves have some size with sets in the eight foot range. However there is plenty of crap amongst the nuggets.

As usual the Quiksilver webcast is terrible. It doesn't stream properly, keeps stopping and jumping back to repeat the same footage over and over. It didn't happen at the Trestles or Chopes or any contest not sponsored by Quiksilver.