Kelly Slater Wows Margaret River

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SLATER  BREEZES THROUGH FIRST HEAT

The 11-time world champion Kelly Slater wowed the crowds at this week’s Telstra Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River in Western Australia.  The building swell was being pushed onto the reef by strong southwesterly winds for most of the day, requiring some of the competitors to ride slightly bigger boards to cut through the chop.
When Kelly Slater arrived at the beach,  Bede Durbidge was packing up his boards after just winning his heat. Slater asked what size board he had used,  a “6′ 5″ he replied, adding that Kelly would need a longer stick out there. Slater brought two boards with him – a 6’3″ quad fin and a 5’9” quad with his famed “Nubster” trailer. Ignoring Durbidge’s advice he ventured into the water with the five-fin firmly under his arm. It worked like a charm, catching both lefts and rights and setting up all his waves with beautiful bottom turns. The champ finished off with a carving 360-degree re-entry.
Slater had this to say of his return to Surfer’s Point:

It is really great here. Last year we had an awesome time, the waves were not great but we relaxed and went and saw the wineries and ate some beautiful food. But this year is different.  The swell forecast is great and I am looking to do a lot of free surfing and hopefully get through the comp to Friday when the waves look like being spot on.

Local favourite and current world number one Taj Burrow had a shocker, but advanced. He snuck through right at the end of his heat, scoring 4.63.

I just couldn’t find the right waves, Margaret’s does that to you. I just kept getting caught out of position and it’s such a long paddle back out. I’d get a bad one, then on the long paddle back out, I’d be looking at all these good ones. And it was just annoying me because I wanted to be on one of those, but I guess the bad heat is out of the way.

In a building six-foot swell, heat eight became a battle between two former champions, Mark Occhilupo and Josh Kerr, who won the 2010 event. Occhilupo won the inaugural event in 1985 before regaining the title 20 years later. These guys have very different styles but both used the bottom turn to advantage. Occhilupo was a wildcard entry in this years event and he gave the appreciative crowd a lesson in surfing fundamentals. Both men progressed to the next stage.

Occhilupo was in high spirits afterwards:

It was so good to do a backhand bottom turn out there, I was looking for the rights, but I ended up catching a lot of lefts. Then on my last wave I felt as though I’d pulled a really good backhand bottom turn and set up the rest of the wave. Margaret’s gives you lots of room to move and that’s what I love about this place. There aren’t many waves that allow you to do a turn like that besides here, Bells and J-Bay. It’s so good to get off the bottom.

Defending champion Damien Hobgood and 2008 winner Tom Whitaker also both qualified, as did top seeds Owen Wright, Adrian Buchan and Bede Durbidge.

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The worst conditions are thought to have passed, with Friday expecting sizzling 8-foot at 17 seconds and light offshore winds as the standout. The guys who are out of the event are off to enjoy the wineries, or free surfing at one of the numerous surf breaks along the rocky coastline that will be cranking by the end of this week.

 

TELSTRA DRUG AWARE PRO MEN’S ROUND OF 96 RESULTS:
HEAT 1: Owen Wright (AUS) 16.16, Joan Duru (FRA) 11.43, Jerome Forrest (AUS) 9.66, Alain Riou (PYF) 6.24
HEAT 2: Jay Quinn (NZL) 11.43, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 11.16, Perth Standlick (AUS) 9.44, Maxime Huscenot (FRA) 9.10
HEAT 3: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 15.00, Messias Felix (BRA) 8.70, Alex Ribeiro (BRA) 7.57, Brett Simpson (USA) 5.73
HEAT 4: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 12.57, Gabe Kling (USA) 12.60, Jay Thompson (AUS) 11.30, Masatoshi Ohno (JPN) 8.10
HEAT 5: Damien Hobgood (USA) 14.53, Billy Stairmand (NZL) 12.27, Royden Bryson (ZAF) 9.90, Thomas Woods (AUS) 5.76
HEAT 6: Blake Thornton (AUS) 13.50, Hizunome Bettero (BRA) 12.00, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 10.84, Flavio Nakagima (BRA) 7.56
HEAT 7: Dion Atkinson (AUS) 12.40, Jadson Andre (BRA) 10.17, Charlie Brown (BRA) 8.43, Vincent Duvignac (FRA) 7.43
HEAT 8: Josh Kerr (AUS) 15.00, Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 14.27, Shaun Joubert (ZAF) 9.57, Kai Barger (HAW) 8.67
HEAT 9: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.50, Nathan Yeomans (USA) 9.94, Hodei Collazo (EUK) 8.27, Yujiro Tsuji (JPN) 5.40
HEAT 10: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 13.97, Mitch Crews (AUS) 13.67, Luke Davis (USA) 13.07, Andre Silva (BRA) 11.83
HEAT 11: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 10.70, Olamana Eleogram (HAW) 9.96, Brandon Jackson (ZAF) 8.34, Jesse Mendes (BRA) 7.84
HEAT 12: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.60, Tom Innes (AUS) 10.50, Mitchel Coleborn (AUS) 5.93, Marc Lacomare (FRA) 4.97
HEAT 13: Heath Joske (AUS) 10.20, Taj Burrow (AUS) 8.23, Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 7.50, Luke Campbell (AUS) 4.27
HEAT 14: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 12.70, Charles Martin (GLP) 11.34, Thiago Camarao (BRA) 10.84, Tim Reyes (USA) 1.94
HEAT 15: Brent Dorrington (AUS) 13.46, Adam Melling (AUS) 12.67, Halley Batista (BRA) 10.66, Cory Lopez (USA) 9.87
HEAT 16: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 14.33, Granger Larsen (HAW) 13.33, Stu Kennedy (AUS) 10.74, Matt Banting (AUS) 9.83
HEAT 17: John John Florence (HAW) 16.13, Lincoln Taylor (AUS) 9.90, Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 6.92, Dean Bowen (AUS) 4.10
HEAT 18: Jack Freestone (AUS) 13.03, CJ Hobgood (USA) 12.93, Nat Young (USA) 11.10, Kiron Jabour (HAW) 9.03
HEAT 19: Gony Zubizarreta (ESP) 12.33, Jonathan Gonzalez (CNY) 11.97, Travis Logie (ZAF) 11.43, Daniel Ross (AUS) 9.44
HEAT 20: Tomas Hermes (BRA) 6.70, Nic Muscroft (AUS) 6.50, Luke Cheadle (AUS) 6.20, Heitor Alves (BRA) 1.77

 

via: ESPN,  EUROSPORT

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