The swell rolled in today for the third round of the Quiksilver Pro…the sun was out and Snapper Rocks was firing at its best since April ’09.
This meant the crowds were thick and the judges were expecting nothing but the best from the remaining pros tackling the 6-8foot waves.
The early heats saw little upset, with top seed Fanning easily dispatching his opponent Brett Simpson in heat 8, and despite yesterdays performance wild card Andy Irons succomed to .
The Aussie boys were all on fire with Taj Burrow, Kai Othon, Joel Parkinson, Daniel Ross, Bede Durbridge and Kieren Perrow all progressing to round 4.
Upset of the day came in the form of Kai Othon as he surfed at his best to see higher seeded Dean Morrison drop out of the competition in a closely fought heat.
Tensions were high thoroughout heat 12 where Dane Reynolds faced Jeremy Flores. The pair both spent 30 mins matching and raising each others waves…in the end it literally came down to the last 2 waves of the heat, with Reynolds edging through by 13.57 to 13.23.
As low tide approached the walls steppened and the barrels were thick and fast for the final heats with a packed beach for heat 15 when 9 times world champ Kelly Slater entered the water. As expected he easily out surfed rookie Patrick Gudauskas and some uber deep barrels and tight turns meant he sailed through with a score of 15.37, wipping the crowd into a frenzy and being mobbed on his return to the beach!
The higlight of the day by a long way was heat 13, where Aussie pair Bede Durbridge and Luke Munro came head to head as Snappers sucky barrels came in to full force.
Durbridge wiped the heat clean, advancing on each wave score with more vertical manouvers and deeper, longer barrels to take home a 19.30; the highest heat score of the round and indeed the contest so far, with a defeated Munro only managing a 7.37
If Durbridge keeps up this form he’ll definately be one to watch for the contest title…and for the remainder of the tour.
