Bruno Santos Wins The 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti - Teahupoo
May 16th, 2008 by Adam
With conditions deteriorating and the swell dropping, the 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti - Teahupoo ended Thursday with a Brazilian knocking out a local Tahitian rider. This was only the second time in WCT contest history that 2 wild-card surfers were competing in a WCT final round. Bruno Santos (BRA) ended Manoa Drollet (PYF) aggressive charge towards a tour stop victory. Even though Drollet found a couple 10 point scoring waves in Round 4 and in the Semi’s, he could not find any perfect waves in the Final Round. Drollet only chalked up a combined 6.83 points in the final, compared to Santos and his low-scoring 9.16 points. Bruno is the first Brazilian to win an ASP Tour event in five years. Bruno Santos was battling more than the inconsistent surf. He had to battle finding a smaller board.
“I got two little barrels and then there were no more waves, I don’t know, maybe Mother Nature was trying to help me,” Santos said. “Today is so small and my 6’3 was too big so I borrowed a board from a French guy in the channel. He saved my life, I want to keep the board.” Bruno Santos also defeated last year’s World No. 1 Mick Fanning (AUS), World No. 2 Taj Burrow and 2001 ASP World Champion C.J. Hobgood (USA), as he advanced to his victory.
Bruno Santos celebrating his victory (Photo: ASP)
Top 10 ASP World Tour Rated Surfers after the Billabong Pro Tahiti:
1. Kelly Slater (USA) 2810 points
2. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 2340 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 2318 points
4. Andy Irons (HAW) 2196 points
5. Mick Fanning (AUS) 1989 points
6. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 1932 points
7. Taj Burrow (AUS) 1886 points
8. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 1874 points
9. Kai Otton (AUS) 1800 points
10. Dane Reynolds (USA) 1742 points
Complete 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti results
This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 9:52 am and is filed under Surfing News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.