Harbor Area Sports

Chris Ward, Kelly Slater and Pipeline Master Gerry Lopez

Kelly Slater has Mastered the Banzai Pipeline once again.

Nine-time ASP World Champion, Kelly Slater, just won the 2008 Billabong Pro Pipeline Masters a record sixth time.  This victory was Slater’s sixth tour event win of the 11 event 2008 ASP world tour.  What a great accomplishment for Slater!

The 2008 ASP World Tour has been a dream season for Kelly Slater.  Not only did he set another surfing record this year with his 9th ASP World Title, but he also won 6 out of the 11 ASP Tour events.  Slater clinched the 2008 ASP World Surfing Title back in October at the Billabong Pro Mundaka.  He could have opted out of the Billabong Pro Pipeline Masters event and ended his tour back in Spain.  However, I do not think Slater wanted to end his dream tour without taking a crack at the Pipeline event he has won 5 times and did not want to disappoint his fans.

Slater has made the Pipeline Masters final 10 out of his last 17 times he entered it.  He won the event in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999 and again in 2008.  Ironically enough, Slater’s 9th win comes 9 years after his last Pipeline win.  Plus, this year Slater won his 9th ASP World Title.  I guess Slater’s lucky number in 2008 was the number 9.

Kelly Slater has already won the 2008 ASP World Surfing Tour Title, but there are still 2 surfing events left on the surfing world tour.  The race for the top 10 ASP World Tour rankings is still up for grabs.  There are 6 Australians in top 10 contention.  Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, and Bede Durbidge are battling it out for the top 3 spots after 2008 title holder, Kelly Slater.  There is only 1 Brazilian (Adriano de Souza) in the top 10 rankings and look for him to step up his sufing in the next contest.  Adriano will be surfing in his “backyard.”

The next ASP Tour surf stop takes place at the Hang Loose Pro in Santa Catarina, Brazil.  Adriano de Souza’s home turf is Brazil and he is from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Sao Paulo is two states above Santa Catarina and both states offer a long coastline of surf spots.  Adriano is “Brazil’s Favorite Son” and he has gained significant recognition on this years ASP World Tour.  He has already earned $101,000 on the 2008 ASP tour, compared to Kelly Slater’s tour earnings of $185,100.  One of Adriano’s fellow Brazilians, Bruno Santos, won the 2008 Billabong Pro Teahupoo, Tahiti.  Bruno Santos won the event as a wildcard and had to surf his way through the Von Zipper Trials.  He eventually made it into the main draw of the 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti and defeated local Tahitian, Manoa Drollet.

I have not been to Brazil yet, but if anybody has surfed this area or visited this area, please comment on this blog and talk about your experiences.  Thanks!

Look for Adriano de Souza to make some surfing noise on the ASP World Tour stop #10.

CJ Hobgood beat fellow surfer Joel Parkinson at the 2008 Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain.  This was stop number 9 on the 11 event ASP Tour.  Who will make it to the top 10? Second place? Third place?

There are 3 Australian surfers battling it out for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in the overall ASP Tour standings.  The next 2 events will be fun ones to watch.  Next up is the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro in Santa-Catarina, Brazil.  Then the whole 2008 ASP season concludes at the Billabong Pipeline Masters and the Banzai Pipeline, Oahu-Hawaii.  Pipeline is where second and third place could be decided.

Billabong Pro Mundaka Final Results:
Final: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 18.50 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.83

Billabong Pro Mundaka Semifinal Heat Results:
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.80 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50
Heat 2: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 14.66 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 6.70

ASP World Tour Top 10 after Stop No. 9 of 11 – Billabong Pro Mundaka
Kelly Slater (USA) 8042 points
Taj Burrow (AUS) 6324 points
Joel Parkinson (AUS) 6180 points
Bede Durbidge (AUS) 5990 points
Adriano de Souza (BRA) 5748 points
C.J. Hobgood (USA) 5760 points
Adrian Buchan (AUS) 5730 points
Mick Fanning (AUS) 5310 points
Bobby Martinez (USA) 5282 points
Luke Stedman (AUS) 4696 points

Slater only needed a ninth place finish to wrap up the 2008 ASP surfing season.  Kelly Slater has done it again.  Or should I say, he has done it 9 times again.  Slater won his 9th ASP World Surfing Title at the Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain.  That is better than Lance Armstrong. He only needed to advance past round 3 of competition and that he did.  He ended up beating local Basque surfer Eneko Acero with a combined score of 14.96 vs. 10.00.  Then Tom Whitaker (AUS) knocked Kelly Slater (USA) out of the Billabong Pro Mundaka contest with a perfect 10 and an 8.00 during Heat #4 of Round 4.  In 2006, Slater won his 8th world title at this same surf spot.  There are only 2 ASP surfing events left in the 2008 season.  Who will come in second? Third?

The event could finish Saturday with the quarterfinals already decided.

Round 4 Billabong Pro Mundaka Results:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 17.27 def. Mick Campbell (AUS) 16.43
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.00 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 13.73
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 5.83
Heat 4: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 18.00 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 12.43
Heat 5: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.84 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 11.17
Heat 6: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 15.50 def. Mikael Picon (FRA) 9.50
Heat 7: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.94 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 8.80
Heat 8: Luke Stedman (AUS) 15.00 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 8.63

Upcoming Billabong Pro Mundaka Quarterfinal Heat Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
Heat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Tom Whitaker (AUS)
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Luke Stedman (AUS)

The 2008 Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain has started.  The first contest rounds were surfed this morning in 2 foot A-frame peaks.  Not the normal firing left-handed barrels that Mundaka spits out on a solid swell.  Too bad the surfers had to wake up to such fickle waves.  Hopefully, the forecasted swell fills in Thursday and pumps out some better scoring waves.  Watching 3 and 4 point scores on waves aren’t as fun as watching 8’s or 9’s!

Watch out for the 4 Euskadi (Basque for the Basque region of Spain) surfers in this years event.  There are a total of 8 non-tour surfers competing because 5 full-time ASP World Tour surfers could not make the event.  The 8 non-tour surfers are comprised of 5 replacement surfers and 3 event wildcards.

Adrian Buchan (AUS) has defeated 8-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA), at the 2008 Quiksilver Pro France.  The ASP World Tour title race will have to move onto the next ASP stop, the Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain.  Slater could have sealed the ASP Tour season with a win, but he will have to wait for his 9th ASP World Title.  This is Adrian Buchan’s first world tour event win.  Adrian beat Kelly Slater 15.73 to 15.16.  What a close finish.  You never know what you are going to get when the world’s best surfers hit the water.

Final Quiksilver Pro France Results:
Final: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.74 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 15.16

Semifinal Quiksilver Pro France Results:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.90 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.97
Heat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.17 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 8.83

Top 10 ASP World Tour Ratings After The Quiksilver Pro France:
1. Kelly Slater (USA) - 7852 points
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) - 6002 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) – 5668 points
4. Adriano De Souza (BRA) – 5426 points
5. Joel Parkinson (AUS) - 5373 points
6. Mick Fanning (AUS) - 5310 points
7. Bobby Martinez (USA) - 5092 points
8. CJ Hobgood (USA) - 4880 points
9. Adrian Buchan (AUS) - 4719 points
10. Jeremy Flores (FRA) - 4407 points

Go see the 2008 Roxy Jam Cardiff this weekend.  The 3rd annual Roxy Jam starts this Friday, September 19, and runs until Sunday, September 21.

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) 6-Star event is the biggest event for professional female long-boarders in North America.  The winner of this event will claim the ASP North America Women’s Longboarding Title.

Jennifer Smith, the 2007 ASP Women’s World Longboarding Champion and a Pacific Beach, CA local girl won last years event.  She will also be there this year to defend her title and compete against other professional surfers.

I went to the first Roxy Jam Cardiff two years ago and it was awesome!  It was the first ever Roxy Jam Cardiff and the event was well put together.  There were great waves and conditions were perfect for longboarding.  Go watch the contest this weekend!

The Roxy Jam Cardiff will begin on Friday, September 19, 2008 at Cardiff Reef in Cardiff, California at 7am Pacific Time.

Another Irons brother won the 2008 Rip Curl Pro Search.  Bruce Irons pulled out a win on the 6th stop of the ASP World Tour against his Hawaiian mate, Fred Patachia.  Andy Irons won the 2006, 2007 Rip Curl Pro Search contests and now his little brother has a Rip Curl Pro Search WCT victory.  Bruce can feel complete this year since he will end his professional contest surfing after this year.

With this win, Bruce moved into 10th place on the ASP World Tour rankings.  Kelly Slater still remains in first place with a very comfortable points lead.  Tiago Pires, Portugal, was in it to win and actually knocked out eight-time ASP World Champ and the current ratings points leader, Kelly Slater, in Round 3.  Tiago Pires would eventually surf his way into 3rd place in the Rip Curl Pro Search contest.

Rip Curl Pro Search Final Results
1 – Bruce Irons (HAW) 17.66
2 – Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 11.16

Current ASP World Tour Top 10 After Stop NO. 6
1 – Kelly Slater (USA) 5620 points
2 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 4548 points
3 – Bede Durbidge (AUS) 4382 points
4 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 4370 points
5 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 4353 points
6 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 3950 points
7 – Andy Irons (HAW) 3938 points
8 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 3870 points
9 – Bobby Martinez (USA) 3628 points
10 – Bruce Irons (HAW) 3392 points

Nathaniel Curran: Rowland/ASP Covered Images

Nathaniel Curran (USA) defeated Tim Boal (FRA) at the 2008 Honda US Open of Surfing presented by O’Neill and also moved into the ASP WQS ratings lead.  His first place finish came in 1-3 foot surf at the Huntington Beach pier.  Nathaniel managed to score a combined two-wave score of 11.66 vs. Boal’s 10.70.  The best two-wave score out of 20 possible points determines the combined wave score.

Taylor Jensen, from San Clemente, CA, claimed the O’Neill U.S. Open of Longboarding presented by Honda title.  He beat out three other competitors, Noah Shimabukuro, Oceanside, CA, Ned Snow, North Shore, HI and Tony Silvagni, Kerry Beach, NC,  to win his second US Open title.

Orange County local boy, Tanner Gudauskas, took the O’Neill US Open Pro Junior presented by Honda title.

Men’s final results:

GO211 LIVE featuring the Men’s Honda US Open of Surfing presented by O’Neill:
1 – Nathaniel Curran (USA)
2 – Tim Boal (FRA)

O’Neill US Open Pro Junior presented by Honda Results:
1 – Tanner Gudauskas (USA)
2 – Julian Wilson (AUS)
3 – Chris Salisbury (AUS)
4 – Nat Young (USA)

O’Neill US Open of Longboarding presented by Honda Results:
1 – Taylor Jensen (USA)
2 – Tony Silvagni (USA)
3 – Ned Snow (HAW)
4 – Noah Shimabukuro (USA)

The 2008 US Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach, CA has started and the men’s second round is complete.  Today, July 23, will feature the women’s Round of 60, 48, and 24.  Thursday will feature the men’s Round of 96: Heat 1-20 and the Boost Mobile Pro Shoot Out Heats 1 and 2.  This weekend is the grand finale featuring the men’s and women’s surfing final, specialty events, interactive festival village and the first ever Corona Stand-Up Paddle Surf Challenge.

For complete coverage and times go to US Open of Surfing Event Schedule.

While visiting the GO211 US Open of Surfing contest, make sure you stop by the Festival Village and check out the IPEVO and ROCKSTAR Energy Drinks booth.