The Surf Blog Spot

The Mavericks big wave surf contest is on for this Saturday. There will be 24 big wave surfers all competing for a $150,000 prize purse. If you can’t make it to the live contest you can watch it on the big screen at AT&T Park.

Watch the contest LIVE:  www.maverickssurf.com

Or check out the surf contest and get your tickets to the ballpark  

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

The biggest upset of Round 3 goes to Manoa Drollet, the local Tahitian, knocked out the 8 time world champ, Kelly Slater, and moved onto Round 4.  Kelly Slater could only manage a combined 9.83 wave score in Round 3, compared to Drollet who scored a 14.00 heat total.  Another top standout and last year’s ASP World Number 2 surfer, Taj Burrow, was beaten by Brazilian surfer Bruno Santos. 

WATCH LIVE SURFING

Kelly Slater was slapped with a priority interference penalty while paddling for a wave Manoa had priority on and Slater’s second wave was disqualified.  Even though Slater finished this contest in 17th place, he will maintain his ASP Tour Number 1 ranking. 

With 2 of the top surfers vacant from the Teahupoo lineup and only one day left in the competition, the field will be battling for the Teahupoo victory.  Slater’s biggest threats are still in the contest.  The two biggest worries include Andy Irons (HAW) and Joel Parkinson (AUS).  Both of these pros are ranked 6th on the ASP Tour and if either of them win the Teahupoo competition, they would move all the way up to Number 2.  Putting them right behind the Number 1 and adding more pressure on Slater and his 9th World Title contention.

WATCH the Billabong Pro Tahiti - Teahupoo LIVE

Looks like Kelly Slater wanted a piece of that $320,000 pie and decided to show up to the 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti - Teahupoo event. Rumor has it, he was kicking back watching the Lakers playoff game with his “other” friends. He flew out to Tahiti just in time for his heat. This guy treats his heats as a warm-up when the others surfers in the contest came a week earlier to knock off some rust. It is up to Slater to lose his 9th world champion title. If he does not want to surf an event, then the competition gets that much closer to Sl8ter!!

Contest Schedule: On

After waiting 5 days for Teahupoo to erupt, the contest officials finally flipped on the swell switch.  But seriously, there is no magical switch and contest officials are a little bummed on the current swell conditions.  The Teahupoo glassy waves and Round 1 are officially underway at 7:00am, May 13, but there are some famous faces missing.

Watch the competition LIVE

The defending Teahupoo champion, Damien Hobgood, is missing from this years competition because he fractured his shoulder a month ago and it has not completely healed.  Apparently, another notable surfer might show up fashionably late.  Teahupoo insiders report that Kelly Slater is not present at the contest either.  Since Slater has earned the most world titles, he decides if he will show up or not.  The waiting period at Teahupoo has not garnered enough swell and hence Slater might not show up on time.  He is probably surfing another head-high, world class wave on some other tropical island.  Stay tuned to see if he will show.

Watch the Billabong Pro Tahiti LIVE

Contest Schedule:  Off For The Day

The 2008 Billabong Pro Teahupoo, Tahiti takes place May 8-18.  Kelly Slater is still in first place in the world tour rankings and Teahupoo has yet to unleash its fury.  The contest has been postponed today, due to small swell.  The official swell forecasters are predicting better swell for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Tune into the Billabong Pro Tahiti and watch a LIVE webcast on www.aspworldtour.com/billabongpro.  There is a nice $320,000 prize purse for those surfers lucky enough to conquer ‘Chopes. 

Stay up to date with the Surf Blog Spot and find out more on the ASP world tour title race.

Teahupoo, Teahupo’o (pronounced Cho-pu or Te-ah-hu-po), also known as ‘Chopes, is located on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. The largest and main island of French Polynesia, Tahiti, is situated in the eastern South Pacific Ocean. Tahiti is pretty much in the middle of South America and Australia. If you have ever flown from Los Angeles, CA to Auckland, NZ, then you flew right over Tahiti. Are you ready for your next surf trip?

Tahiti and French Polynesia

Tahiti is shaped like an hour glass and is the most populated island in French Polynesia. You may know Tahiti mostly for black sand beaches and honeymoons, but among the surfing community, Tahiti is known for Teahupoo. Teahupoo is a world-class reef break spitting out left-handed barrels that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up straight. The main circus attraction of Teahupoo is when the tow-in surfers get a whiff of big swell. Any significant swell will turn this place into a surfer frenzy. Here is a picture of what Teahupoo looks like when the pro-surfer circus rolls into town.

View from the shoulder

The science behind Teahupoo

Here is a great resource to learn more about Tahiti

The finalists have been announced for the XXL Billabong Ride of the Year.  The winner will be announced on April 11, 2008 at the eighth-annual awards ceremony taking place at the Grove Theater in Anaheim, CA.  There are only five nominees for the Ride of the Year and the famous and treacherous Teahupoo weighs in with three nominees.  Believe it or not, but the swell that produced Teahupoo’s three nominee waves were caught on video on the same day! 

The top winner with the Ride of the Year will take home a sweet $50,000 paycheck.  Not a bad day’s work for risking your life and life-long bragging rights.  I think that either Ian or Shane’s ride will take the Oscar this year.  Take a look at the video and comment on which wave is the “Ride of the Year.”

Check back tomorrow and witness the top five Monster Paddle Award Nominees.