JEFFREYS BAY, South Africa (Tuesday, July 14, 2009) – High drama and excellent scores were the order of the day as rifling six-to-eight foot (2 – 2.5 metre) surf poured through South Africa’s most iconic lineup for Rounds 2 and 3 of the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay.
Event No. 5 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay witnessed the ASP’s top seeds hit the water today, posting the highest scores of the event mixed in with some of the biggest upsets, all going down in what some are calling, “the best Jeffreys Bay ever.”
Kelly Slater (USA), 37, reigning nine-time ASP World Champion and four-time past winner of the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay (’96, ’03, ’05, ’08), put in an historic performance, netting four nine-point-plus rides in his Round 2 heat to collect the highest heat total of the event, an 18.84 out of a possible 20 (throwing away a 9.23 and a 9.00).
“It was just unbelievable,” Slater said. “The waves were just pumping. I couldn’t get back out there fast enough. It just kept barreling. I went all the way down through tubes and doggy-doored to the end, must’ve gotten like 4 or 5 barrels on that thing. It was a pretty sick wave. I don’t know what else I could’ve done on it. I surfed it as hard as I could. I’m pretty happy. I had a really good heat – that’s the best heat I’ve had this year by a mile.”
Currently ranked 9th on the ASP World Tour ratings, Slater rebounded from three, consecutive 17ths to start the year with a win in Brazil last week before setting the bar today at the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay.
“I feel like the current leg we’re competing on is a strong one for me,” Slater said. “I went to Brazil without much motivation, but it turned out to be a good event for me. Now we’re here in Jeffreys where I feel really comfortable and the next events are ones I usually do well at. A lot of guys are surfing good though – Sean (Holmes), Joel (Parkinson), so we’ll take it one heat at a time.”
Michel Bourez (PYF), 23, 2009 ASP Dream Tour rookie, caused the upset of the event today, eliminating former ASP World Champion (2007) and two-time past winner of the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay (’02, ’06), Mick Fanning (AUS), 28, from competition in their Round 2 bout. The heat would prove one of the highest-scoring affairs of the event (18.27 – 17.17), with Bourez sealing the win with the event’s first Perfect 10-point ride.
“I was just feeling really good in the water,” Bourez said. “To surf that wave – perfect barrels, long rights – I was definitely ready for that. On my 10, I had just come back from my first wave and was so tired, but I saw that one coming and said that’s the one. It was breaking on the sand, and I got three barrels on it. I was so stoked that I claimed it. I had to!”
Dane Reynolds (USA), 23, 2008 ASP World Tour Rookie of the Year and current ASP World No. 34, put in a sensational Round 2 performance, collecting the event’s second Perfect 10-point ride with some committed forehand hacks before a mind-blowing barrel, en route to eliminating current ASP World No. 8 Jordy Smith (ZAF), 21.
“I kind of started off the heat sitting pretty far up the point,” Reynolds said. “Jordy (Smith) came out and paddled straight by me way up to the top of the point so I was like alright, I’ll just try and get scraps off him. I think that no matter where I surf, anywhere, I like to stay wide I like to see waves coming to me. Even when I’m free surfing, I never sit out the back and wait for sets. I’m always hunting insiders and a lot of the times it messes me up in heats. On that 10, I wasn’t even sure if that was going to be a good wave. I had priority and got to the bottom and you could see it lining up for days – I knew it was going to be good from there.”
