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.

Stupid

Just watched the Taj and Kelly heats on demand. What a joke.

Taj only got two waves in the whole heat, neither much chop. Kolohe got a clean throaty barrel and came out clean so deserved his 7.0. Compared to what was to come it probably should have been an 11.

Kelly's heat was worse. Both surfers had a wave in their two scorers that was a close out barrel that they didn't make it out of. Raoni's was a 3.7 with one judge giving it a 4.0. If there were decent waves he would have been lucky to get a two. He just took off and stood straight while the wave collapsed on his head. He was never ever getting out. His second scoring waves was three little lip hits that I could do and he gets a 5.5 with one judge giving it a 6.0 !

Kelly got a little backhand coverup, coming out clean and got less than the close out he pulled into and almost made out the doggie door. He had more chance that his opponent's 3.7 and got  a 2.67. Neither surfer deserved to win because they shouldn't have been out in those conditions but Slater's made wave was probably a 0.1 better than the Brazilian's.

They put the event on hold straight after the heat.

This ridiculous heat could have cost Slater his 12th title.

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)

Portugal

Round one and half of round two of the Rip Curl Pro Portugal were run overnight. Jordy Smith was the only real shock elimination so far. Both Taj and Yadin are through to round three after dropping round one.

The waves were a bit mixed but if you got the right one it was worth a nine plus.

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 1 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 6.30, Brett Simpson (USA) 5.06, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 3.67
Heat 2: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 14.33, Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.36, Jadson Andre (BRA) 6.73
Heat 3: John John Florence (HAW) 14.73, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 7.34, Kai Otton (AUS) 4.13
Heat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) 9.67, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 9.70, Dusty Payne (HAW) 2.33
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.67, Dillon Perillo (USA) 6.60, Damien Hobgood (USA) 5.90
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.17, Kolohe Andino (USA) 15.36, Pierre Valentin Laborde (FRA) 2.96
Heat 7: Owen Wright (AUS) 16.26, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.94, Yadin Nicol (AUS) 7.65
Heat 8: Josh Kerr (AUS) 10.70, Taylor Knox (USA) 7.43, Heitor Alves (BRA) 5.53
Heat 9: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.50, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.83, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 11.67
Heat 10: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 14.00, Adam Melling (AUS) 11.87, Michel Bourez (PYF) 9.67
Heat 11: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.73, Travis Logie (ZAF) 12.83, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.03
Heat 12: Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.53, Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.27, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 3.13

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.17 def. Pierre-Valentin Laborde (FRA) 6.17
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.33 def. Dillon Perillo (USA) 10.37
Heat 3: Dusty Payne (HAW) 12.80 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 10.77
Heat 4: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 18.50 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 17.73
Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.73 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 10.93
Heat 6: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 15.00 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 12.93
Heat 7: Yadin Nicol (AUS) 16.10 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 8.24
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.63 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 12.33

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 9: Brett Simpson (USA) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 10: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 11: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 12: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)

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.