Six long lay days went by between heats eight and nine of Round 3 of the Billabong Pro Tahiti. As everybody tuned in for the morning call trying to recollect the action that happened in the first half of the event window, WSL Commissioner Kieren Perrow seemed to have lost his gamble with the sea.
Although the long period swell we had all been waiting for showed up, it came with more wind and less size than expected, forcing an even longer delay. And after holding off as long as they could, Josh Kerr and Adrian Buchan finally paddled out with their jerseys on as the clock struck noon over in Tahiti.
Round 3 Fireworks
Kerr set the pace for the day, beating Buchan in a buzzer beater situation, and then Slater took out Sebastian Zietz in a close heat.
Then things got interesting as Jeremy Flores and Joel Parkinson each used opposite strategies to try and get through to the next round.
With the tricky conditions, it was anybody’s heat to win. Joel Parkinson started off the heat right away dropping into a couple smaller closeouts to put some low scores on the board. Staying active, he paddled into three waves before Flores dropped into his first.
But Flores picked a bomb. After waiting patiently for almost 10 minutes Flores posted his first score, a 9.10.
Even Slater who was doing his post-heat interview stopped mid-sentence, exclaiming, “Jesus, Jeremy!”
While Parko continued to catch the smaller ones, posting a lot of mid-range scores and a 7-pointer that he’d hold onto, Flores just waited. Then, with 15 minutes left, he struck again, dropping into a massive barrel. Grabbing rail and skipping down the face, Flores disappeared behind the curtain. Just as the wave spat, he came charging out, throwing his fist in the air. The judges liked it, and Flores was rewarded with his second nine, a 9.77.
Parko fought until the end, posting 10 waves to Flores’ four, but he was left combo’d when the horn sounded.
To finish off Round 3, Julian Wilson and C.J. Hobgood paddled out in completely opposite situations.
Wilson is currently third in the rankings, and with a win against Hobgood he would secure the top spot with World No. 1 and 2, Adriano de Souza and Mick Fanning, already out of the competition.
Hobgood, on the other hand, could care less about the rankings after announcing his retirement. He is just surfing for the love of surfing, which I’d say is more dangerous than the guy gunning for the top spot, if you asked me.
Anyways, this much anticipated heat was slow, really slow. Starting with a restart and with only 10 minutes left on the clock, the heat scores were Wilson’s 5.77 to Hobgood’s 4.03.
Then as a decent sized set rolled through, Wilson took a chance and dropped on the first wave. Grabbing rail, stalling deep, he found some tube time and a clean exit. Hobgood, alone out in the lineup, opted to go on the second wave. He dropped in deep, pumped up the face once and stood tall before disappearing in the barrel. As the wave spat, and the foam ball churned and pinched off the tube, and it looked as though Hobgood wasn’t going to come out. For a split second, everybody watching began chalking it up as another valiant attempt, when all of a sudden out of the bottom of the wave, Hobgood emerged as surprised as everybody else that he just made it.
With a unanimous decision, Hobgood was given a perfect 10 and he took the lead.
Never grabbing a decent back-up score, Hobgood left the door wide open for Wilson, who only needed a 7.01. The wave never came, and Hobgood shut down Wilson’s chances at grabbing the rankings lead while he moved on to face Slater and Flores in Round 4.
Round 4 Excellence
The all-goofy, all-Brazilian heat between Italo Ferreira, Gabriel Medina and Bruno Santos was the highlight of Round 4.
The rookie, Ferreira took a slam early on, missing a late drop and never really recovered. He seemed frozen sitting out the back for the rest of the heat and only posting a total heat score of 6.84.
Santos and Medina made up for his lack of waves, as they battled back and forth all the way down to the buzzer.
Santos grabbed the first big score, posting a 9.00 in a huge barrel. He dropped to the bottom, set rail and locked his knees, standing as tall as he could. As he came flying out the top of the wave still standing, you knew that was going to hit the excellent range.
Then, with only a 4.67 on the board, Medina charged into a wave with his nose pointed right, fully committed, he swung around on the drop, pumped as hard as he could and found probably the best barrel of the day. It spt, he got shot out and kicked out with confidence. The judges gave him an almost perfect score, a 9.97. That must have stung. But, it was enough to take the lead over Santos.
With 30 seconds left on the clock, Santos dropped in for one more chance, needing an 8.65 to take the lead from the Champ. From behind the peak, Santos drove into the barrel and got in deep but on his exit, he struggled with the foam and bobbled quite a bit before finding his balance and kicking out. As the horn sounded, the score still hadn’t dropped, but in the end the suspense was all for nothing–Santos got an 8.10 and will have to surf in Round 5 to keep his winning chances alive.
Slater finished off the day with a bang. Needing a 7.84 to take the lead from Flores and move straight into the Quarterfinals, he fought off a huge barrel with 2 minutes left. Grabbing the rail with both hands at one point, just to make it out of that monster, Slater earned a 9.77.
Chopes, clean conditions or not, continues to offer some of the best surfing all year. Don’t miss out, the Final day has to run tomorrow.
