San Clemente, CA -- Rob Machado delivered us from a very evil Fall season this morning. By defeating tour leader Joel Parkinson, he opened the door for Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning and C.J. Hobgood to claw their way back into the title race. Had that not happened, this would have been a snoozer of a season.

Parko handled his first early loss of the season well, all things considered, because it came with a little controversy. The basic rundown is this: Machado held a razor thin lead through most of the heat as both surfers struggled to make anything happen on the mushy righthanders, and the lefts weren't providing much relief.

Parko had two opportunities to catch Rob, but came up fractionally shy both times. It was clear he didn't have his A-game. Parko is still nursing an ankle injury he suffered in early August while free surfing in Bali. As his biographer Sean Doherty put it, he injured it "trying to pull a Dane Reynolds" maneuver of some sort.

But Parko remained well within striking distance, needing only a 5.77 to advance. Then Rob made the mistake of leaving him out the back alone in the closing seconds of the heat. Sure enough, Parko spotted a small insider with a good wall and started scratching his way in as the announcer counted down.

"Three!" Paddle, paddle, paddle..."Two!" Scratch, kick, scratch..."One!" Pushing hard...Horn Blows...Parko is up, and he proceeds to rip a few good size hacks into a steep little face, getting what looks to most like a winning wave...if it counted.

The judges took their sweet time making that decision. The next heat, with was Slater's, was put on hold as they pondered the matter. The instant replay was no help without audio. According to Mike Parsons, who was in the commentary booth next door, the head judge asked all nine people in the immediate area what they thought. The list was comprised of active judges, judges on break, and even a random passer by or two. Seven of the nine said Parko was up after the horn blew. And so he was.

My guess is all seven would like to see this year's title race last a little longer.

Witnesses say there was no debate of the ramifications. But, c'mon, they're never is when the fix is in. If somebody needs to be "taken care of" it's all done with winks and nods, right?

"Nah!" says Luke Egan, Parko's coach and gatekeeper to the media. "I don't think they'd do that. I don't think he got the score anyway," he explained, sounding very much like a good sport. "Joel could easily be bitter if he wanted to, but with his injury this result isn't that bad."

But Parsons disagrees with his buddy Luke. "He's tripping. That was easily a 6.0. That was the heat right there."

That debate might be over for now, but I'm guessing it'll be revisited on Saturday if C.J. Hobgood, Kelly Slater or Mick Fanning can follow the script writers.

For what it's worth, each of them looked ridiculously solid today.



HURLEY PRO TRESTLES REMAINING ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 7: Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.33 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 12.94
Heat 8: Rob Machado (USA) 11.27 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 10.73
Heat 9: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.83 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 9.24
Heat 10: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 12.50 def. Chris Davidson (AUS) 10.46
Heat 11: Damien Hobgood (USA) 15.10 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 14.73
Heat 12: Heitor Alves (BRA) 15.77 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 14.50
Heat 13: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.50 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 10.93
Heat 14: Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.10 def. Dean Morrison (AUS) 11.60
Heat 15: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.74 def. Michael Picon (FRA) 10.33
Heat 16: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 13.84 def. Tim Boal (FRA) 13.44

HURLEY PRO TERSTLES ROUND 4 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 2: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 4: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Rob Machado (USA)
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Kekoa Bacalso (HAW)
Heat 6: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 7: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)