There was about a 20 minute lull during the Final Heat of the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro. It was getting pretty boring. Julian Wilson was sitting on a good lead and holding priority with about six minutes to go, and after exercising that priority Sebastian Zietz would need a little more than a seven in order to take the lead. Then a set came through in the final minutes. Finally. Julian took the first wave and extended his heat score with an eight on the first wave that came through. Sebastian was on the next wave, and he topped his opponent with an 8.30. He wouldn’t need another wave to fight off Wilson.
“I thought it was gonna go flat forever,” Zietz said after. He’d never been past the quarterfinals of a ‘CT event, but now the former rookie of the year was going to celebrate his first ever win with a W at the 2016 Drug Aware Margaret River Pro.
“How does number two on the world tour sound?” Peter Mel asked.
“Whoa! Radical!”
It might have been the best response you could have asked for. In a year where the entire WSL rankings are flipped on their head it was fitting to see a Final with two surfers who’d been sitting outside the top ten heading to Margie’s. Zietz has been propelled into the 2nd spot on the Jeep Leaderboard and Wilson is now number seven in the world. The result shuffled up the ‘CT’s top five, adding Seebass to the mix and dropping Kolohe Andino down a spot to number four, while Matt Wilkinson keeps the yellow jersey. Next up, the tour heads to Brazil for the Oi Pro in May.
