If you are an avid reader of surf publications, you may have noticed that a little blond girl named Alana has been getting quite a bit of coverage as of late. Girls generally have had a tough time garnering much attention in the male dominated surf media, and the reason for this is simple: guys surf better than girls. There. I said it. Sorry ladies, but there isn't a maneuver out there that can be done better by a woman, even by the best female surfer. Alana Blanchard is doing her best to change this perception. Her signature maneuver, the frontside bottom turn, is arguably the most photographed maneuver in all of woman's surfing. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that no bottom turn, male or female, has graced as many pages as Alana's since Tom Curren in the 80's. Both have impeccible style, posture, positioning, and finesse. Curren was born and bred in the long flowing righthand pointbreaks of Santa Barbara, and it was this upbringing that sculpted his legendary smooth style. Alana was born and raised on the North Shore of Kauai, where powerful righthand reefbreaks and tiny bikinis provided the necessary elements for her to develop the most captivating bottom turn in surfing. After claiming her second professional victory 2 weeks ago at the Reef Hawaiian Pro Haleiwa, it seems that, like Curren, she is translating media attention into competitive success. One thing is for sure though, Alana can drop in on me anytime she wants.

Joel Parkinson won the 2009 ASP World Title today. Not officially, of course, but go ahead and stick a fork in this season because it's merely a race for second, and one of survival for everybody else. The only remaining drama now is who will be staying and who will be moving on next year, and what exactly what next year is going to look like in the world of pro surfing...but more on that later. For now all you need to know is Slater's loss to Taylor Knox and Parko's subsequent win today ended all hopes of Kelly's quest for 10 world titles.

The whole "nine is enough" thing seemed to be haunting Slater at Jeffreys Bay. On Tuesday, when everyone else was racking up 10-point rides the judges were a little greedy with Kelly. He could only muster four scores in the 9-point range. "I really don't know what else I could have done," he said afterward, sounding perplexed and just a little pissed.

What likely happened is Head Judge Perry Hatchet had a bit of an intervention with his team before Slater's heat. With J-Bay on fire and Kelly taking to the water it would have been easy for them to screw themselves early by getting all giddy and throwing down huge scores right out of the gate. When they make that mistake it leaves them with very little wiggle room should he actually follow up with a better ride. As a result, they end up judging Kelly on a tougher, lower scale.

Regardless, Slater was wishing he could have rolled his unused 9-point rides into his heat with Taylor Knox, when the tide suddenly turned against him. Slater never got anything going sitting up the point, and sitting and waiting is the toughest way to lose. His disappointment was obvious to anyone watching. Slater sat in the lineup, seething, lightly smacking the water for a good five minutes afterward. Knox, who knows exactly how much Kelly really cares, came over to console him in what became a very telling moment.

To his credit, Slater spoke with G.T. afterward. (Note to anyone who runs pro surfing events: it should be mandatory for losers to talk. Pissed off people are emotional, making the comments far more interesting.) In the course of the interview Slater all but conceded the season to Parko, "I'd have to win three straight now to get back in this thing." But with everything else going on in Kelly's world right now, Trestles and Europe are a lifetime away. Expect some big announcements in the next week or two about his plans for this year and next.

Ten years after his wild card win here in 1999, Parko celebrates another one as tour leader. Photo: ASP/Scholtz via Getty Images



"So Tom, whadya say we do this some place warmer next time." Photo: ASP/Scholtz via Getty Images

There were other subplots at Jeffreys that are worth mentioning, like Sean Holmes, who should get some type of lifetime achievement award for his incredible J-Bay performances; Curren and Occy got robbed on waves, but are still square in their lifetime battle, which means we'll see more. The goofy's got their groove on and the Californians had a pretty good run. In fact, not a single one of them bombed out. On that point, the real Dane Reynolds finally showed up, which was refreshing. (Note to Dane: uhm, how should I put this...we're really not interested in watching you go retro, dude. We've got butt loads of those guys in California, so we get it. What we don't get is how the hell you do that crazy shit you do. We'd pay to see that. That's why you make the big bucks.)

The real Dane Reynolds was standing tall in Jeffreys Bay. Photo: ASP/Cestari via Getty Images

With the mid-season break on the tour now upon us, it's time for our own All Star Game. Most of the ASP big boys will all be jumping on the horrible two-day long flight home in preparation for the Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing, which promises a few very cool new twist this year. Stay tuned for more on that.

Pro surfing has had some good rivalries in its brief thirty year history, but none have rallied nations against each other more than the Tom Curren vs. Mark Occhilupo clashes in the early-to-mid 80's. At the time, Curren was the firt American hopeful for a world title in well over a decade, and the day he jumped onto the world tour in 1982 he was percieved as a true threat to Australian dominance. As the son of a big wave pioneer, and student of Australian 'Free Riders' Ian Cairns and Peter Townend, Curren represented a new breed of American performer ready to break free of the repressive 70's surfing that rendered Californian surfing obsolete. The Australians, meanwhile, led by Mark Richards, Rabbit Bartholomew, Cheyne Horan and Tom Carroll, had been ruling since the mid 70's, yet they weren't exactly sure what their response to Curren was going to be, until a young Mark Occhilupo bursts onto the scene in 1983.

For the next several years, the clashes between Curren and Occy helped propel the fledgling sport forward, breathing life into a emboldened surf industry in the United States. Curren and Occy met in epic clashes in the Op Pro in Huntington Beach, as well as the famous semifinals battle at Bells Beach in 1985, where Curren won his first world title. But sadly, the two never had the opportunity to face each other at Jeffreys Bay, arguably the sport's most renowned race track. Curren had boycotted South African events for much of his career, while Occy lit the wave on fire in smaller events like the Country Feeling Classic from the first moment he set foot in the tiny town. Occy considers J-Bay a second home now. Curren was a late bloomer there. His first real visit came in 1993. Being raised in pointbreaks, there was little doubt he would take to the wave. And he sure did.

That the great Curren and Occy clash at Jeffreys Bay never happened is one of surfing's greatest wrongs, and one Billabong has set out to remedy this year by inviting the two legends down there for what is arguably the most long-awaited showdown in surf history. "The second they brought it up to me I started doing sit ups every day," said Curren, who was spotted last week down at Trestles sneaking in some training sessions at the NSSA Nationals, where his kids were competing. Curren is off to Jeffreys with his entire family. The Billabong Pro waiting period begins Thursday the 9th, with a decent looking swell due to arrive on Monday.