by Greg
21. September 2010 07:09
I am still in shock after watching the end of the Hurley Pro at Lower Trestles in Southern California USA. The waves where pumping and the standard of surfing hit levels I don’t believe I have seen in competitive surfing from the likes of Kelly Slater, Owen Wright, Bede Durbidge, Jordy Smith, Dane Reynolds and Mick Fanning.
Kelly Slater was outstanding to win the event from Bede Durbidge, and it is crazy to see how Kelly is taking new school surfing to the youngsters on the tour. Kelly had a final heat score of 18.13 to Bede’s 14.13 to win the event and take the World Title ratings lead.
Kelly took South Africa’s Jordy Smith off the top spot of the World Ratings with a point’s tally of 40 000 to Smiths 35 500. Taj Burrow is in third with 30 500. It is a pity that Jordy is down to number 2 in the world. Kelly has had great results this year and its hard to believe he won’t be World Champ, but the pressure has now switched from Jordy back to Kelly and hopefully Jordy can relax and come fighting back as he looked really nervous in his quarter final heat that he lost to Bede Durbidge. Travis Logie has slipped to number 31 on the ratings and will be looking for some big results in the upcoming Europe leg of the tour. Anybody that has hot seen the highlights of the Hurley Pro, do yourself a favor and go to aspworldtour.com or hurleypro.com and watch the amazing action!
Across the Atlantic in Portugal, Heitor Alves is making waves of his own. The Brazilian has won two six star events in a fortnight with his latest being the 6 Star Lusiaves Figueiro Pro beating Australian Yadin Nicol in the final and shoot up to number 19 on the ASP One World Ratings. South African’s Royden Bryson, Shaun Joubert and Rudy Palmboom all finished tie ninth to claim 949 point. The points have pushed Royden into 48th position on the One World ratings, Rudy into 83rd and Shaun Joubert into an impressive 116 for his first year on the tour!
The South African surfing team has had a 5-day training camp in Cape Town and Eilands Bay. The teams has been through vigorous training in and out the water, including a gruelling day the Sports Science institute in order to get this team to peak fitness and performance levels before the ISA World Games in Panama from 18-27 October in Peru.
Greg Emslie
South African’s Royden Bryson has moved into 48th position on the One World ratings.