And Kelly Slater makes surprise appearance (and wins)…
Were you as surprised as me, thrilled if that’s allowable to admit, when Kelly Slater suddenly turned out in Portugal?
The story of his various disasters in the European leg in the last two years doesn’t need to be retold. Slater is understandably protective enough of his legacy to want to avoid disappearing in our estimations with disastrous heats in waves as appealing as the gull shit that covers everything in these parts. He’d even covered himself, fine-wise, with a talk of a rib injury in France.
In his inimitable style, Slater heard of a spike in swell, and flew to Peniche the night before the contest started.
“I got that injury about 10-12 days ago in France and I thought it was going to be debilitating, I haven’t surfed in about a week and have been taking some time off,” Slater explained. “I felt alright, and when the adrenaline goes you don’t think about it so much. I saw the forecast indicating we could get some really big barrels, and I didn’t want to miss that if it happened.”
But the smoke didn’t come from Kelly Slater on day one, but in the ninety minutes of surfing from Filipe Toledo, Gabriel Medina and Josh Kerr.
As swooning and seductive as aerials might be to the layman, there’s airs and there are… airs.
Filipe got greasy on this one.
Gabriel was a phenomena in the sky. (And Mason Ho!)
Josh Kerr mounted this.
This is a highlights package.
Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal Round 1 Results:
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 13.17, Tomas Hermes (BRA) 12.83, Jadson Andre (BRA) 8.40
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.00, Miguel Pupo (BRA) 12.60, Mason Ho (HAW) 10.86
Heat 3: Keanu Asing (HAW) 12.30, Caio Ibelli (BRA) 12.07, Julian Wilson (AUS) 8.07
Heat 4: Vasco Ribeiro (PRT) 12.17, Michel Bourez (PYF) 11.47, Owen Wright (AUS) 11.07
Heat 5: Frederico Morais (PRT) 16.43, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 16.27, Kolohe Andino (USA) 16.27
Heat 6: Mick Fanning (AUS) 13.24, Tiago Pires (PRT) 10.17, Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 9.10
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.90, Aritz Aranburu (ESP) 11.86, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 8.67
Heat 8: Brett Simpson (USA) 16.13, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.33, Italo Ferreira (BRA) 14.60
Heat 9: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 15.63, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.07, Ricardo Christie (NZL) 12.67
Heat 10: Nat Young (USA) 12.60, Kai Otton (AUS) 10.34, Glenn Hall (IRL) 9.54
Heat 11: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.17, John John Florence (HAW) 11.60, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 10.16
Heat 1
2: Josh Kerr (AUS) 15.97, Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 13.94, Adam Melling (AUS) 10.04
Moche Rip Curl Pro Portugal Round 2 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Adriano De Souza (BRA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 2: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Caio Ibelli (BRA)
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Mason Ho (HAW)
Heat 4: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Tomas Hermes (BRA)
Heat 5: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Aritz Aranburu (ESP)
Heat 6: Wigolly Dantas (BRA) vs. Ricardo Christie (NZL)
Heat 7: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Glenn Hall (IRL)
Heat 8: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. C.J Hobgood (USA)
Heat 9: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 10: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Sebastian Zietz (HAW)
Heat 11: Jadson Andre (BRA) vs. Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 12: Miguel Pupo (BRA) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
hey do ya get fined for not turning up to the Pre-contest Press conference??
or does the injury cover that??
…stern email and written warning…
really , was helping Johanne Dufay in France dealing with her failure to turn up to a press conference , and a fine was mentioned..hmm??
…but no fine, only threat?