The Surf Blog Spot

Kelly Slater has already won the 2008 ASP World Surfing Tour Title, but there are still 2 surfing events left on the surfing world tour.  The race for the top 10 ASP World Tour rankings is still up for grabs.  There are 6 Australians in top 10 contention.  Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, and Bede Durbidge are battling it out for the top 3 spots after 2008 title holder, Kelly Slater.  There is only 1 Brazilian (Adriano de Souza) in the top 10 rankings and look for him to step up his sufing in the next contest.  Adriano will be surfing in his “backyard.”

The next ASP Tour surf stop takes place at the Hang Loose Pro in Santa Catarina, Brazil.  Adriano de Souza’s home turf is Brazil and he is from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Sao Paulo is two states above Santa Catarina and both states offer a long coastline of surf spots.  Adriano is “Brazil’s Favorite Son” and he has gained significant recognition on this years ASP World Tour.  He has already earned $101,000 on the 2008 ASP tour, compared to Kelly Slater’s tour earnings of $185,100.  One of Adriano’s fellow Brazilians, Bruno Santos, won the 2008 Billabong Pro Teahupoo, Tahiti.  Bruno Santos won the event as a wildcard and had to surf his way through the Von Zipper Trials.  He eventually made it into the main draw of the 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti and defeated local Tahitian, Manoa Drollet.

I have not been to Brazil yet, but if anybody has surfed this area or visited this area, please comment on this blog and talk about your experiences.  Thanks!

Look for Adriano de Souza to make some surfing noise on the ASP World Tour stop #10.

The Hang Loose Pro Santa Catarina, Brazil takes place October 28 – November 5, 2008.

CJ Hobgood beat fellow surfer Joel Parkinson at the 2008 Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain.  This was stop number 9 on the 11 event ASP Tour.  Who will make it to the top 10? Second place? Third place? 

There are 3 Australian surfers battling it out for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in the overall ASP Tour standings.  The next 2 events will be fun ones to watch.  Next up is the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro in Santa-Catarina, Brazil.  Then the whole 2008 ASP season concludes at the Billabong Pipeline Masters and the Banzai Pipeline, Oahu-Hawaii.  Pipeline is where second and third place could be decided.

 Billabong Pro Mundaka Final Results:
Final: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 18.50 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.83

Billabong Pro Mundaka Semifinal Heat Results:
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.80 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50
Heat 2: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 14.66 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 6.70

ASP World Tour Top 10 after Stop No. 9 of 11 – Billabong Pro Mundaka
Kelly Slater (USA) 8042 points
Taj Burrow (AUS) 6324 points
Joel Parkinson (AUS) 6180 points
Bede Durbidge (AUS) 5990 points
Adriano de Souza (BRA) 5748 points
C.J. Hobgood (USA) 5760 points
Adrian Buchan (AUS) 5730 points
Mick Fanning (AUS) 5310 points
Bobby Martinez (USA) 5282 points
Luke Stedman (AUS) 4696 points

Kelly Slater Wins Number 9

Slater only needed a ninth place finish to wrap up the 2008 ASP surfing season.  Kelly Slater has done it again.  Or should I say, he has done it 9 times again.  Slater won his 9th ASP World Surfing Title at the Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain.  That is better than Lance Armstrong. He only needed to advance past round 3 of competition and that he did.  He ended up beating local Basque surfer Eneko Acero with a combined score of 14.96 vs. 10.00.  Then Tom Whitaker (AUS) knocked Kelly Slater (USA) out of the Billabong Pro Mundaka contest with a perfect 10 and an 8.00 during Heat #4 of Round 4.  In 2006, Slater won his 8th world title at this same surf spot.  There are only 2 ASP surfing events left in the 2008 season.  Who will come in second? Third?

The event could finish Saturday with the quarterfinals already decided.

Round 4 Billabong Pro Mundaka Results:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 17.27 def. Mick Campbell (AUS) 16.43
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.00 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 13.73
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 5.83
Heat 4: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 18.00 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 12.43
Heat 5: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.84 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 11.17
Heat 6: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 15.50 def. Mikael Picon (FRA) 9.50
Heat 7: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.94 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 8.80
Heat 8: Luke Stedman (AUS) 15.00 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 8.63

Upcoming Billabong Pro Mundaka Quarterfinal Heat Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
Heat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Tom Whitaker (AUS)
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Luke Stedman (AUS)

Kelly Slater will surf against Basque wildcard Eneko Acero in Heat 8.  The contest officials will likely start the contest at 8:30am (local Mundaka time) tomorrow morning.  If Slater wins he will clinch his 9th ASP World Titl.  Contest officials also expect to run overlapping heats again.  With only a certian amount of surfable waves during the contest waiting period, the officials need to complete as many heats as possible.  Thursday had the most heats ever surfed in one day of an ASP surfing event.  Slater and Acero will paddle out an hour and 20-minutes after competition starts Friday.

The contest is LIVE on www.billabongpro.com

The 2008 Billabong Pro Mundaka, Spain has started.  The first contest rounds were surfed this morning in 2 foot A-frame peaks.  Not the normal firing left-handed barrels that Mundaka spits out on a solid swell.  Too bad the surfers had to wake up to such fickle waves.  Hopefully, the forecasted swell fills in Thursday and pumps out some better scoring waves.  Watching 3 and 4 point scores on waves aren’t as fun as watching 8’s or 9’s!

Watch out for the 4 Euskadi (Basque for the Basque region of Spain) surfers in this years event.  There are a total of 8 non-tour surfers competing because 5 full-time ASP World Tour surfers could not make the event.  The 8 non-tour surfers are comprised of 5 replacement surfers and 3 event wildcards.

Watch the surf contest live www.billabongpro.com/mundaka08

September 30 is another lay day for the surf contest.  The surf event directors say there is some nice swell on tap for Thursday/ Friday.  Right now the swell is too small for competition.

Check out the official Billabong Pro Mundaka website:  Billabong Pro Mundaka