Vitalised: Rounds 3 and 4, Billabong Pro, Tahiti

"I came out on pillows," says CJ after 10-pointer…

From the scoffing superiority of the couch, this year’s Tahiti Pro has been an easy target. Dirty winds, lazy swells, moody days. Who wouldn’t be inclined to point out the weakness of a tour overloaded with surfers and rounds and fixed contest dates?

Today, however, with a long-interval south-west swell leaving the reef exposed like a lunar crater for most of the day, we were given a snappy, exhilarating contest. All those plunging, crashing bodies and hurting limbs!

Rounds three and four were completed, Owen Wright, Gabriel Medina, Josh Kerr and Kelly Slater  into the quarter-finals.

“We have seen carnage today,” said the commentator Ron Blakey. “There were wipeouts today that made me feel sick.”

“It’s a six-foot swell acting like a 10-foot swell,” said the commentator Ross Williams.

“I can’t feel my arm!” hollered Kai Otton to the channel.

“I felt like I was floating in my mum’s womb. It was like I’d been slapped by Kai-Borg,” said Josh Kerr. “My brain was in another planet!”

If you weren’t affixed to your computer or television, these are the highlights you should watch.

Jeremy Flores, high nine. “He’s such a little dog!” said Ross Williams.

CJ Hobgood’s 10-pointer. “I came out on pillows!” said CJ after. “”He said, ‘I’m going to go down with the ship’ and it paid off for him. He came out on a bag of marshmallows.” said Ross Williams.

Josh Kerr’s stand-up-straight cabana (scroll to the end.) “Josh Kerr’s such a stud,” said Ross Williams.

Gabriel’s near ten. “It was twice as good as anything I saw,” said Ross Williams.

And Kelly Slater, who’ll swim within a thousand points of Adriano de Souza if he wins Tahiti, just won his round four heat, with ninety seconds left. A skirmish with a serious knuckle of a wave that stole the heat. Nearly ten!

“I was looking at it, doubting it, hoping it would back off. I almost pulled back but I went just to see what would happen,” said Kelly Slater. “What if I let this go and it’s the one? The first foam ball bounced me, slowed me down, second slowed me down more, then I came out on blue face and thought, I got it! Looked up and the lip was in front of me and I still had work to do. I came out on the closeout.”

Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 3 Results:
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 16.97 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 12.50
Heat 2: Kai Otton (AUS) 13.13 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.00
Heat 3: Owen Wright (AUS) 18.23 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 15.70
Heat 4: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 16.10 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 9.83
Heat 5: Gabriel Medina (HAW) 19.00 def. John John Florence (HAW) 18.84
Heat 6: Bruno Santos (BRA) 16.20 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.70
Heat 7: Aritz Aranburu (ESP) 15.17 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 6.67
Heat 8: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 16.83 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 8.66
Heat 9: Josh Kerr (AUS) 15.80 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.67
Heat 10: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.06 def. Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 13.33
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 18.87 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14.60
Heat 12: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.60 def. Julian Wilson (AUS) 9.50

Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 4 Results:
Heat 1: Owen Wright (AUS) 14.84, Filipe Toledo (BRA) 13.06, Kai Otton (AUS) 12.70
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (HAW) 17.64, Italo Ferreira (BRA) 17.10, Bruno Santos (BRA) 6.84
Heat 3: Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.20, Aritz Aranburu (ESP) 11.43, Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 6.40
Heat 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.60, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 14.66, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 8.30

Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 5 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Heat 2: Bruno Santos (BRA) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 3: Aritz Aranburu (ESP) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Wiggolly Dantas (BRA)