No one wants to see the King bow out in Round Two. Not in the first event of the year. Especially not people with Fantasy teams. The World Surf League reported that 80% of all Fantasy Surf Teams included Mr. Slater. They’re pissed. Stuart Kennedy, however, is not. The twenty six year-old from Lennox Head put on an exceptional performance, claiming a 9.5-point in relatively modest surf, to pull off an unexpected upset. Ironically, he’s repping Firewire, which probably has Mr. Slater a bit miffed.
“I obviously came into this event as a replacement, and it feels a bit weird replacing Bede since he’s so good,” said Stuart Kennedy. “I’m going to have to go versus all the top seeds in every event I get into so I’m going to have to surf out of my skin. I just psyched myself up with some hard music before and stuck to my gameplan and it seemed to work.”
Julian Wilson, another high seed, also felt the wrath of the upset, losing a close heat to Sebastian Zietz to bow out of competition in Round Two.
The event is currently on hold, but tune into the webcast at worldsurfleague.com to catch all of the action live.
Stuart Kennedy en route to his Round Two victory over Kelly Slater. Note the Firewire board. Photo: WSL/Cestari
Everyone is excited to learn more about Kelly Slater’s new Firewire line of boards. Photo: WSL
