Kelly Slater moves closer to his 11th Surfing Title
The stage is set. Kelly Slater and the world’s best surfers are in Ocean Beach, San Francisco, USA. Kelly Slater has the World Title in his site and will be looking to lock-up #11. The backdrop for this event is a classic view of a great city. San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge welcome the surfers with a swell.
As the contest got under way, ‘The Stoke’ was in the air as the WCT was welcomed with a solid swell and clean conditions. The Rip Curl Pro Search round 1 got off to a great start as the world’s best hit the water. As the early heats paddled out into the lineup the crowd on the beach filled in for this event.
Some early standouts were Adam Melling, Adriano de Souza, Taj Burrow, Jordy Smith and Fred Patacchia. They all won their heats with some solid surfing in the early morning glassy conditions.
As the second half of round 1 got underway, all eyes would be focused on Kelly Slater as he hit the water with Kai Otton and Dean Brady (wild card). Slater would not hold back as he knows what he needs to win his 11th World Title.
Slater played with the wildlife before he hit the water… a big crab on his board. Slater would dominate this heat from the start. He scored a two-wave total of 16.03 to Otton’s 10.90 and Brady’s 9.97. Slater took one more step towards a historic 11th World Title. Patrick Gudauskas, Matt Wilkinson, Gabriel Medina, Adrian Buchan, Chris Davidson and Alejo Muniz all finished off round 1 with heat wins.
As round 2 got started, the wind came up a little bit and the conditions started to show a choppy side. In heat 1 of round 2 Owen Wright beat Dean Brady with a heat total of 11.16 to Brady’s 8.07. In heat 2 Joel took out Dillon Perillo with a two-wave total of 8.60 to Perillo’s 6.50.
Julian Wilson lost in round 1, but bounced back in round 2 against fill in Taylor Clark who put the pressure on Julian early. Julian wins 13.57 to Clark’s 8.76.
The next heat (the last of the day) was between Michel Bourez and Daniel Ross. This heat went back and forth as both surfers looked sharp. Daniel Ross took the heat 14.00 to Bourez’s 12.00.
A thriller of a heat will likely kick off competition tomorrow as round 2 moves on with Bede Durbidge going up against Dane Reynolds.
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Shark!!! During Jordy Smith and Dusty Payne’s heat in round 1, Dusty was riding a wave that had some wall to it, but what was odd is he wasn’t ripping it to shreds, rather looking out the back and pointing to something. He then made a fin symbol and came right in on that wave.
His heat was done with plenty of time left in the heat. He confirmed he saw a large fin that was not a dolphin fin. He looked very pale on the beach. I would be also after seeing something of that caliber in the water. Jordy took the heat as he looked in form. Dusty will have to surf in round 2.
There have been a couple of shark attacks in NorCal in the last few days. That number is a large number in shark attack terms. The patrol will be out tomorrow hopefully keeping an eye on things. Remember… we are in their world.
I look forward to the action on the surfboards (not under the surfboards) as the contest moves into the later rounds. Great venue and event so far…
~ P. Franklin / Guerrilla Surf — Guerrilla.Surfers@gmail.com
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