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Kelly Slater (USA), 37, reigning nine-time ASP World Champion, has claimed the 2009 Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro over an in-form Adriano de Souza (BRA), 22, in clean three-to-four foot (1 metre) waves at the main site of Praia Vila.

Event No. 4 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Hang Loose culminated in a dramatic finale with perennial ASP World Title threats all pushing one other towards the finish line.

Despite the Brazilian smashing his way out to an early lead, Slater found his form mid-heat with a 9.27 out of a possible 10 for a series of high-risk maneuvers, exhibiting a near-perfect variety of repertoire. Not satisfied with only one high score, Slater nailed the coffin shut with an 8.67 in a dying minutes to secure his 41st ASP World Tour victory.

“There were much better waves in the Final than there were for my Semifinal,” Slater said. “Adriano (de Souza) found a pretty good rhythm early on and posted some pretty good scores, but I felt comfortable out there and felt that the waves would come to me if I were patient. Both of my scoring rides allowed me to a bunch of maneuvers and I felt that the scores were maybe a little high, but I haven’t had many good scores this year, so it was bound to go my way at some point.”

Nearly pulling out of both the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro and the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay altogether, Slater made a last-minute decision to come to Brazil for the fans, but his journey here was riddled with delayed flights, visa complications and missing baggage. After a Round 1 loss on a borrowed board, the Slater juggernaut built momentum throughout the event, riding everything from self-shaped, asymmetrical quad-fins to epoxies to his bread and butter performance boards.

Next stop on the 2009 ASP World Tour will be the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay in South Africa from July 9 – 19, 2009.

HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Kelly Slater (USA) 17.94
2 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.67

HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.97 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.86
SF 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.16 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 6.93

HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 12.67 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.33
QF 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.73 def. Dustin Barca (HAW) 13.04
QF 3: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.60 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.17
QF 4: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 12.87 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 9.17

HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.90 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.50
Heat 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.60 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 10.00
Heat 3: Dustin Barca (HAW) 11.17 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 8.80
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14.66 def. Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 13.33
Heat 5: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.20 def. Tim Reyes (USA) 12.33
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.10 def. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 11.67
Heat 7: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.84 def. Mick Campbell (AUS) 13.16
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) 12.20 def. Chris Ward (USA) 8.14

CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 10:
1 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 3876 pts
2 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 3206 pts
3 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 3072 pts
4 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 3050 pts
5 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 2940 pts
6 – Bobby Martinez (USA) 2625 pts
7 – Tom Whitaker (AUS) 2532 pts
8 – Jordy Smith (ZAF) 2486 pts
9 – Kelly Slater (USA) 2430 pts
10 – Damien Hobgood (USA) 2342 pts

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