Highlights from Finals Day at Teahupoo - video
After 55 CT wins over 25 years, Kelly Slater put yesterday's epic triumph up there with the best. Says a lot for what went down at the end of the road, and also explains the tears in his eyes during the post-heat interview with senor Mel.
Kelly's last five heat scores were 18.17, a perfect 20.00, 19.27, 18.40, and in the final he convincingly beat John John with 19.67.
You may remember Kelly got on a similar roll at Cloudbreak, he fetched a 19.77 and 18.70 and looked certain to take the trophy till he rode his luck too far against Medina and the ocean went quiet.
There were no such glitch yesterday with the Champ minimising the luck factor by playing smart with priority - and even smarter without it - while maximising every scoring opportunity that came his way. Even John John, the current best surfer in the world, threw in the towel five minutes from full time, lost in combo-land and floundering.
And was anyone else waiting for a mention of retirement during that aforementioned interview with Mel...?
Comments
FON no doubt about it. The guy is double jointed and close to impossible to beat on those super hollow left-hander tropical reef breaks. I was discussing it with my son and at right hand points and reefs there are others you would put in front of slats however at Pipe, Fiji and Chopes there is non better.
Owen - pre injury, just saying....
Speaking of which i wonder how hes going?Yeah i thought if he was thinking of retiring now would be the perfect time but i think hes only warming up again......gotta feeling that competing is his life.
Owen also. The best barrel maestro in the big league. How a guy that tall does it I don't know, but I'd put my money on Owen over Slater. In fact I did last year and then he got knocked out, literally, before the Pipe Masters started.
I really should apologise to Owen about that. Carrying my money is a herculean task. Sorry big fella.
Really enjoyed the coverage while sitting at work doing my spreadsheets. Julian unlucky, just pipped by John John after JW clawed his way back with what was probably the ride of the day, the best of the 10's in the final day in my book. JJ just overtook his with another high score with 35 seconds left, and although it was super-critical it wasn't a long or difficult tube by their standards. Some hot surfing went down, but not scary Teahupo, fairly friendly by those standards
Mr Slater is across several generations of spectators now and many forms of media a great achievement well done.