After another incredible day of surfing in Portugal Kelly Slater is one step closer to winning his almost-unfair 11th World Surfing Title.

On the final day of competition Supertubos delivered the goods, with deep barrel riding the theme of the day, and some incredible showdowns.

Thanks to Europe's surplus of daylight, the event was wrapped up in just under three days.

After Slater got past Taj Burrow in the semifinal with another last-minute 10 point ride, he looked poised to take his third victory in the last five tries.

But the fire in Brazilian Adriano De Souza's belly was red hot, and he came out blazing in the final with a 9.0, and he held on to take an impressive victory over the seemingly unstoppable Slater.

As usual, Slater was amassing inhuman heat totals in his heats leading up to the final: 19.50, 18.70, 19.30. But Slater's wave magnetism seemed to disappear in the final. Meanwhile, Adriano made his way into the final by way of some razor thin margins of victory, including the final which was decided by .95.

Now, with only San Francisco and Pipeline left to go and a 12,500 point lead, it would take an absolute act of King Triton himself to topple Kelly's title hopes. Should he finish ninth or better in the next event he would mathematically clinch world title number 11.

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING FINAL RESULTS:
1 - Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.67
2 - Kelly Slater (USA) 14.73

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 19.50 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.87
SF 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.83 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.03

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.94 def. Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.50
QF 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 18.70 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 7.67
QF 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 17.60 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 17.53
QF 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 17.10 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.60

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING HEAT 5 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) 6.83 def. Chris Davidson (AUS) 3.50
Heat 2: Heitor Alves (BRA) 15.40 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.74
Heat 3: Michel Bourez (PYF) 18.93 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 17.96
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 17.44 def. John John Florence (HAW) 17.06

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.13, Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.70, Damien Hobgood (USA) 14.10
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 19.30, Heitor Alves (BRA) 17.20, Chris Davidson (AUS) 13.40
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.30, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 14.64, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.67
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.00, John John Florence (HAW) 17.84, Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.10

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 9: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 11.60 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 8.10
Heat 10: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.56 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 12.30
Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.27 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 14.54
Heat 12: John John Florence (HAW) 17.33 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 16.96

ASP WORLD TITLE TOP 5 (after Rip Curl Pro Portugal)
1. Kelly Slater (USA) 58,150 pts
2. Owen Wright (AUS) 45,650 pts
3. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 42,450 pts
4. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 41,100 pts
5. Taj Burrow (AUS) 40,950 pts

Day one of the Dane and Jordy comeback campaign party, aka the Quik Pro France, got the green light this morning amidst a rising swell and annoyingly full tide.

A pair of rib-injuries have sidelined the two surfers from the last 2 events, and knee surgery just before the start of the season has kept Dane drunk and dry for the events before that.

Jordy was hot in the title hunt at the time of his rib-ing and being forced to sit in his mansion with his supermodel girlfriend while Owen and Kelly started trading victories was a real rough one for the saffa. "it's been the toughest thing in my life" he said after his heat today, which he narrowly won over wildcard Marc Lacomare and Kieren Perrow.

Jordy also said he's at about 75%, his ribs are still hurting, especially while paddling, which must be a nightmare in the shifting French Beachbreaks.

Dane's first world tour heat since the Pipe Masters last December went just about how most of Dane's competitive surfing goes. An overall lackadaisical approach punctuated by moments of sheer brilliance.

Taking on world number two Owen Wright and Chris Davo, Dane flopped around the lineup for literally the whole heat, falling on everything, before finally nabbing a running righthander with a minute left. He bobbled the first turn, stood there for a second, then raced off down the lines launching a massive full rotation slob air reverse and sticks it. The judges didn't like the bobble and he falls less than a point short, even with a 3.93 as his backup score.

Dane's second world tour heat since the Pipe Masters last December went just about the same way. Until the very end. This time he faces Brazilian Adriano De Souza. Quite the contrasting approaches, to say the least. Passive vs Passion, Power vs Speed, Style vs Stink-bug-stance.

Dane sits on his hands for almost the entire heat before waking up with about 5 minutes left. Catching a rare left, Dane crushes two massive hooks in the lip for a high 8, quickly backed up with a 5 that he surfed with uncharacteristic caution, almost as if he wanted to win the heat or something.

So after two shaky starts, it seems mr. Reynolds has found his footing, even displaying a hint of competitive strategy. Dane's comeback tour continues into round 3...

In other notable news, Parko suffered a shock elimination to Moroccan wildcard Ramzi Boukhiam in a low scoring round 2 heat. Parko is probably cussing with Luke Egan about this as we speak.

Look for action to resume at 8 am local time, which is about 11 pm on the best coast. i mean west coast.

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE ROUND 1 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Taylor Knox (USA) 11.06, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 10.77, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 10.57
Heat 2: Jadson Andre (BRA) 11.17, John John Florence (HAW) 9.13, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 8.00
Heat 3: Mick Fanning (AUS) 18.20, Brett Simpson (USA) 15.33, Tiago Pires (PRT) 12.33
Heat 4: Owen Wright (AUS) 12.60, Dane Reynolds (USA) 12.26, Chris Davidson (AUS) 2.50
Heat 5: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 10.10, Marc Lacomare (FRA) 9.83, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 2.93
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 10.00, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 9.00, Ramzi Boukhiam (MOR) 2.00
Heat 7: Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.53, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 10.83, Kai Otton (AUS) 6.83
Heat 8: Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.43, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 6.80, Dusty Payne (HAW) 3.16
Heat 9: Travis Logie (ZAF) 13.03, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 10.26, Gabriel Medina (BRA) 7.60
Heat 10: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.26, Daniel Ross (AUS) 9.39, Heitor Alves (BRA) N/S
Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.00, Alejo Muniz (BRA) 11.53, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 7.83
Heat 12: Damien Hobgood (USA) 11.90, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 5.93, Josh Kerr (AUS) 4.33

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Ramzi Boukhiam (MOR) 9.20 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 8.84
Heat 2: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 12.67 def. Marc Lacomare (FRA) 7.50
Heat 3: Dane Reynolds (USA) 14.06 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 10.60

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE REMAINING ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 5: Alejo Muniz (BRA) vs. John John Florence (HAW)
Heat 6: Heitor Alves (BRA) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 7: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Daniel Ross (AUS)
Heat 9: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA)
Heat 10: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 11: Brett Simpson (USA) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 12: Chris Davidson (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)

Eighteen year old Gabriel Medina has been one of the brightest young stars coming out of the Brazil for about as long as our attention spans will allow. Following in the path laid by current WCT #3 Adriano De Souza, the most successful Brazilian surfer to date, Medina is leading a new movement from below. The passionate people down in South America have really taken to surfing over the last few decades, almost turning it into their own sport.

A much more aggressive, competitive, interpretation of the classic soul that surfing was built on, but to their credit they have taken surfing very seriously as a real sport. Much like soccer or futbol, the youths of the country now see surfing as a legitimate career or at least a way out of the ghettos or 'favelas' in the big cities, which has led to a massive charge of young Brazilians in the ASP. They are young, trained, fit, ultra consistent, and far hungrier than your average aussie or american surf star that has been pampered since grommethood.

Yesterday in France, for the Airwalk Pro Jr event, which coincides with the 6-Star Sooruz Lacanau Pro, Medina established himself as the best of this young Brazilian crop. He absolutely smoked the field, winning his final 7 heats by combo-ing the field, and scored three perfect tens, including 2 in the same heat for a perfect 20 heat score. He even pulled a rodeo flip in the final, a maneuver that has only been landed in competition handful of times.

The waves suited Medina all event, with small punchy beachbreak lefts that looked a lot like Medina's native surf spots in Maresias.

Today the 6 star main event started at Lacanau, which Medina is also seeded in. His brilliance continued where it left off in heat 5 of the round of 96. He started off the heat with an 8 and a 7.5 before anybody else got to their feet, combo-ing the other 3 surfers. He would then proceed to drop a 9.27, 9.70 and a 9.93. His 4 highest throwaway scores could have taken 2nd and 3rd place in the heat.

This event is a 6-Star Prime event, though Medina is already poised to join the WCT after the mid-year cutoff in September, as the highest rated WQS surfer on tour right now. Expect more highlight reels out of this comp in the days to come..

Contest organizers are going to be pulling most if not all of their hair over the next 12 days, as for the first time in recent memory, the iconic South African point at Jeffrey's has failed to produce a solid swell to greet the world's best.

Yesterday was the first day of the waiting period, and also had the most potential, wave-wise all week. As the top 31 peered out into the sea (and Kelly Slater got a 10 second tube at restaurants in Fiji) the surf world held its breath. The cold South African sea provided nothing but a whimper.

Contest off for today, and judging by the forecast it may not get into the water anytime soon.

Kelly wins again.




And saffa Jordy Smith chimed in on the subject..



Also, on an amusing note, whilst trying to figure out how twitter works, I came across this post from our world number one surfer Adriano De Souza:



Then today, as an apology, the ASP used this photo for their Lay Day posting. Haha.

Who said whining never gets you anywhere?

In a press release issued today, The ASP has sought to clarify a bit of the controversy over the quarterfinal between Owen Wright and Adriano de Souza in Rio last week.

The issue at hand is that Adriano received an 8.23 for a wave where he did one big floater. Owen then caught a smaller left and did one big turn, a tailslide, then a clean slob grab air to finish.

He needed a 6.74 and got a 6.6. He, along with most of the world, was furious. De Souza would go on to win the event.

The press release makes a few key points in their defense of the outcome.

1- the camera angle doesnt show the full size of the wave.
2- Adriano's wave was more critical and harder to ride.

I can agree with both of these arguments as possible reasons for the scoring. I still feel that an 8.23 is offly high for a floater, considering it is one of the most basic and non-progressive things you can do on a wave.

Maybe if we were talking about doing a floater on a 20 foot west bowl at sunset, that would be 8 point worthy, but at a head high beachbreak its hard take verbage like "critical" and "risk" seriously.

They ended with this:

"I pose the question, would you, as a fan of top-level surfing, prefer the surfers to do a good turn on a small easy wave or a good turn on a wave that is going flat-out with a heaving, unforgiving closeout section?"


Well obviously when you phrase the question like that we'd all agree that big turns on big waves are better than small turns on small waves, but that wasn't exactly the issue here. The issue was one good top-turn and a smooth frontside air with a difficult grab variation thrown in, versus one big floater performed in a stink-bug stance.

Adriano's floater was impressive, in terms of the air-drop to land it, but as far as 1) degree of difficulty 2) innovation 3) combination of maneuvers 4) variety, which is the ASP's criteria for scoring, it falls way short of Owen's wave in my opinion. Im fairly certain that the average surfer would find it easier to pull off a backside floater on a big closeout, than do the turns and air that Owen did.

Damien Fahrenfort of doomasrumors.com did some reporting on the subject also. Apparently now that backside floaters are winning heats, Richie Collins is preparing for his triumphant return to glory. Read the story here.

read the whole ASP press release here.