Kelly Slater defeats Owen Wright in Hurley Pro Final – 2011 ASP World Tour
After a series of exciting battles, the seventh stop of the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, Hurley Pro, came down to the Final on Wednesday, September 21, at the iconic point-break of Lower Trestles in California, America.
America’s Kelly Slater managed to edge past Australia’s Owen Wright in the final minutes of the heat to clinch victory and cement his Number One spot on the ASP World Title Rankings.
Both Slater and Wright had already faced each other in the Finals twice at the previous two stops of the elite tour, namely the Billabong Pro Tahiti and Quiksilver Pro New York. On the first occasion, the American had managed to clinch top honours, while
the young Australian walked away victorious in the second event. Pitted against each other in the high-performance waves of Lower Trestles, the stage was all set for the latest chapter of the new rivalry that had recently taken shape.
As the Final kicked-off, both the surfers began to lock wave after wave in search for a good score and gradually built momentum, apparently waiting for the right moment to strike. The cautious and selective battle went on for a while, but the intensity rose
to an entirely new level in the later stages of the heat.
With a few minutes left in the heat, Wright locked a wave to score 7.87 points off a wave and took an upper hand. However, Slater quickly stripped him-off the advantage by scoring 8.50 points off a wave to move ahead on the scoreboard.
In the dying minutes of the heat, Wright utilised a wave to add an additional 8.87 points to his account, moving to a heat-total of 16.74 points. However, the Floridian-based surfer went for the kill on the last wave, unloading a series of exquisite manoeuvres
to score 9.00 points off it and moving to a heat-total of 17.50 points, consequently collecting his third over-all victory of the season.
Talking to a reporter after the Final, Slater said, “Owen [Wright] is tough and he’s been surfing great. There really are no weak points to his surfing and he’s going to be a standout in every spot. A lot of the guys tried to get him this week and I got
lucky in that last exchange. I was taking the first wave of the set under his priority and once I got priority I wanted to wait. It almost looked like there wasn’t a wave after Owen’s. It’s been fun surfing against Owen and surfing Lowers. It’s been a great
week and thanks everyone for the crazy support, it’s been wonderful.”
The latest victory served further to cement Slater’s place on top in the ASP World Title Rankings, while Wright tightened his grip on the Number Two slot.
Elite ASP surfers will return to action at the eighth stop of the 2011 ASP World Tour, Quiksilver Pro France, which is scheduled to take-off at South West Coast in France on October 4.
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