TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Tuesday, May 19, 2009) - Bobby Martinez (USA), 26, has taken out the Billabong Pro Tahiti presented by Air Tahiti Nui, defeating fellow Finalist Taj Burrow (AUS), 30, in clean three-to-five foot (1.5 metre) waves at Teahupoo.

Event No. 3 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Billabong Pro Tahiti survived a marathon waiting period, culminating on the second-to-last available day in improving conditions that peaked for a climactic Final.

Martinez surfed a near-flawless heat, opening up with an impressive 8.73 out of a possible 10 before putting his opponent in a combination situation with a Houdini-esque 9.73 out of a possible 10. Netting the highest heat total of the event, an 18.46 out of a possible 20, Martinez claimed his second Billabong Pro Tahiti and fourth elite tour win, establishing himself as one of the premier tube-riders in the world.

"I feel great and a bit emotional," Martinez said. "I feel wonderful. I waited for the good ones out there and just got lucky. There weren't too many waves and I was lucky enough to get a couple of good ones and not fall. Things just seemed to work out for me today. I really don't know what to say. It feels really special.'

The form surfer of the event, Martinez surfed the majority of his heats on borrowed equipment, having broken most of his surfboards early in the waiting period.

"I actually borrowed a board from Alain Riou (local Tahitian surfer)," Martinez said. "He rides Darren Handley shapes and the board was the same dimensions and pretty much the same board I ride. It was great to find that as yesterday, I was a bit skeptical about today in terms of the conditions and my equipment, but everything worked out perfectly."

Martinez, who is without a major sponsor at the moment, has rocketed himself from 19th to 7th on the ASP World Tour ratings with today's win, putting him in excellent position for the remainder of the year.

"I'm not thinking about money right now, but rather I'm thinking about the feelings I have,' Martinez said. "I didn't start surfing to make money. I started for me, and to win today, you cannot put a price on the feelings I have. I'm really going to let it sink it and enjoy it. It's a great result, but it's a long year and anything can happen. Joel (Parkinson) has a great lead, and now that this event is over, my focus goes to the next one."

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BILLABONG PRO TAHITI FINAL RESULTS:
1. Bobby Martinez (USA) 18.46
2.Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.10

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.86 def. Michael Campbell (AUS) 10.00
SF 2: Bobby Martinez (USA) 17.17 def. Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 15.23

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.33 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 14.06
QF 2: Mick Campbell (AUS) 12.84 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 10.17
QF 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) 15.93 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 12.67
QF 4: Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 11.66 def. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 10.66

REMAINING BILLABONG PRO TAHITI ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) 13.17 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 10.16
Heat 6: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.57 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 8.67
Heat 7: Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 12.56 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 9.16
Heat 8: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 9.43 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 9.40

CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 10:
1. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 3000 points
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 2318 points
3. Mick Fanning (AUS) 2208 points
4. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 2196 points
5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 2174 points
6. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 2076 points
7. Bobby Martinez (USA) 2025 points
8. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 1932 points
9. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 1886 points
10. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 1742 points
10. Taylor Knox (USA) 1742 points
10. Damien Hobgood (USA) 1742 points

Yes, Kelly Slater knows a thing or two about comebacks. But please, let's be real. He's got better things to do than travel to Brazil this month just to play catch up with the same pack of asses he's been kicking for two decades. So I've compiled the 10 most likely moves Mr. Slater will make now that he's got some free time on his hands. Which do you think is most likely to happen first?

1. He'll fly to Bali on the next good swell, jump over to Java for some seclusion, and end up building an eco-friendly house on the edge of the jungle with Timmy Turner, where he'll subsiquently disappear for a few years.

2. In an effort to spend more time with his girlfriend, Kalani, he'll pull a Rodney Dangerfield and go Back to School, where he'll instantly begin shaping boards for fellow students and enjoy torturing professors who've yet to step outside of their campus bubbles and test their theories in the real world.

3. He'll sign a huge deal with Gatorade, who'll start marketing him alongside Tiger, Lance and Jordan, which, frankly, they should.

4. Being the guy who everyone follows, his experimentation of surfboard design will lead to the discovery of a huge breakthrough in technology, involving hyper-suspension, nano-technology polymers, and removable parts.

5. He will join forces with Shane Dorian to chase swells and start a hedge fund.

6. He will start his own clothing label, which will be sold exclusively at Target, featuring pastels and neons only a Floridian could love, yet the button-down aloha shirts will nevertheless be a hit by the 4th of July.

7. In order to fulfill his PR duties for Target he'll secure a guest judging stint on Hasselhoff's new show, America's Got Talent, then be coaxed into starring in the Broadway version of BayWatch.

8. He'll stop competing, but decide to stay on tour as permanent web commentator. The ASP will respond by making him the sole judge, which, frankly, they should.

9. Should number 8 come true, he'll secure funding from a major private equity firm and buy out the ASP for pennies on the dollar after the surfers vote to put him in charge.

10. He'll start his own charter school for up and coming surfers. While nobody will show up for his metaphysical theory class, they'll be crashing his course on media relations, where among other things, they are taught how to elaborate on simple media questions.

Luke Egan understands how the bargaining table works, especially at ASP meetings. During his stellar surfing career, the big Australian goofyfooter was respected for his lethal attack in the water. Back on land, Egan was just as powerful in the boardroom, albeit much more diplomatic, while representing the surfers and their various causes during negotiations with sponsors and event organizers. If conditions weren't right and the event directors wanted to run heats anyway, it was Egan's job to speak for the surfers, which he did, quite well, for years.


These days Egan is on the other side of that table; event director duties of the Billabong Pro, one of the most prestigious events on the ASP World Tour, rest squarely on his shoulders. While he earned the respect of the surfers long ago (he was finalists here in Tahiti in 2002) thanks to a career that spanned the better part of two decades Egan is now in the unenviable position of dealing with the wrath of the very surfers he spent years looking after. This year, aside from dealing with the typical stress of unruly weather, he's dealing with a controversial format change that Billabong elected to experiment with. Surfers, as Luke knows, don't care much for change, especially when it makes their job more challenging.


By passing on the non-elimination version of Round One, the losers bracket, better known as Round Two, and another lease on life, has been removed. In and effort to shorten event running time and maximize the average duration of a swell, Billabong has chosen to utilize the more cut throat format that the ASP added to the event format menu during the off season. It happens to be the same format Luke Egan endured during his first several years on tour in the late 80s and early 90s.


"It's kind of like the old format actually," says Mark Occhilupo, who was in the esteemed Top 16 for much of his early career, a concept that is being reborn with the new format, which seeds them directly into Round Two. The 16 surfers who advance out of Round One will face them. Early in Occy's career, only the Top 32 surfers in the world were seeded. Surfers ranked between 17 and 32 started in Round One of the Main Event, in man on man heats vs. 16 surfers who emerged from the trials at each venue. Today's format is similar, but with 48 surfers total earning seeds, there's a twist. "The only difference is there aren't nearly as many guys coming out of the trials."


On the surface, the decision seems like the obvious one, especially given the fickle weather and challenging forecast Egan is dealing with. By shrinking his running time he can pick and choose the best hours of the days to run heats--something he lobbied for tirelessly back when he was a competitor. But of course, on the ASP World Tour, no good deed goes unpunished. A number of surfers are not comfortable with the move.


"My feeling is with surfing you need a second chance," says Australia's Kai Otton, "especially since we're dealing with Mother Nature."


"I disapprove of it," says Hawaii's Dustin Barca. "Personally I don't think it's very fair." Although Barca, to his credit, seems to have responded to the added pressure, advancing out of his first Round One this season.


"Most swells don't last longer than three days," says Occy. "That's why the format is good."

There have been tense meetings on the format matter between surfers, Egan, and ASP administrators in Tahiti during the lay days. Rumors of the ASP scrapping their future plans for a One World Ranking are circulating as a result. Whether the format option survives is still up in the air, but according to Egan, it was necessary today. "It was definitely a struggle out there," he said, while dealing with filthy winds. "Thankfully we were able to pick off a few heats at the end of the day."


Stay tuned for more.

Tahitian, Heiarii Williams, defeated Hawaiian, Mark Healey, in the Air Tahiti Nui Von Zipper Trials, and in process earned a spot into the Billabong Pro Teahupoo. He'll join fellow wildcards into the event Andy Irons and Bruno Santos, as they try to create nightmares for the surfers of the Dream Tour.

Let's hope the main event gets better waves than the trials did, I'd love to see A.I. silence his critics and show what he can do in waves of consequence. This is also the time for Joel Parkinson to prove he's for real this year, Teahupoo isn't necessarily his cup of tea. Although, he did surf a perfect heat at Pipe last year, but those two 10s were rights, and Teahupoo will not have that option. He's going to have to prove he's on the Slater/Irons level in critical barrels with his back to the wave. The waiting period starts May 9th.

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