Last Call
Fanning takes down Dane in the final and surges to #2 while claiming biggest 1st place ever
By Sean Doherty

The final morning at the Hurley Pro started innocuously enough. The contest had been painted into a corner on the last day of the waiting period – 15 heats to run and a day to do it in. The night of Surfer Poll – Tuesday night from memory – a text had gone out to competitors informing them the contest wouldn’t run the next day. It was the first time any of the competitors could remember a call being made the night before. Sure enough, the combined drinking power of 2000 punters in the Anaheim Grove was enough to ensure the following day was, as one local assessed, “the best day at Trestles in the last two weeks.”

The final 16 surfers in the event paddled out this morning with ratings leader Joel Parkinson not amongst them. Bundled out by Rob Machado in the previous round, he had to sit the day and out and see which of those closest to him in the world title race made the most of his early demise. Watching the heats online from home, Joel cheered on some guys while voodoo dolling others. His dream scenario – completely implausible at any other contest in the world apart from this one – involved five heats having to be restarted from a lack of waves, meaning the 5pm Trestles contest curfew would arrive without the semi finals having been run and the points having to be split. That’s how tight this contest can be to run, and poor old Pat O’Connell, in his debut as contest director here, was literally feeling the heat. A lazy long period swell and a super high tide almost made this scenario a reality. Two heats had to be restarted, two others were close calls. The show, however, rolled on and at 5.15pm this afternoon the richest prize in pro surfing history was handed out.

Parko’s voodoo dolls worked early, with the two surfers immediately behind him in the ratings – CJ Hobgood and Adriano De Souza – both losing. But their exits were a cue for the big sharks to start circling. Early on it looked like it was going to be Kelly who would put the heat on. It is Trestles, after all. Sitting with his entourage in the competitor’s area, Kelly had a set of 3D glasses perched on the table. As Kelly paddled out for his quarter with Heitor Alves, Kelly’s former bandmate and contest commentator, Peter King spotted them. “Whoah! Is Kelly Slater surfing in 3D? He’s taking it to another level!” Most expected this to be the case… today had Kelly written all over it. The ratings leader already out, Trestles… you know the script. But today wasn’t Kelly’s. Today was Mick Fanning’s.

The two met in the second semi-final, and from the start there was only ever going to be one winner. It wasn’t Kelly. So far this year, Mick has surfed far better than his 7th place on the ratings going into Trestles would indicate. He’s been the sleeper in the field, and today he woke. Mick had no entourage, he hung by himself in the competitor’s area, stretching, dancing, limbering to his iPod. And when he hit the water he was clinical, Fanning circa 2007.

But the wildcard in the whole day’s proceedings was Dane Reynolds, and no one who saw him surf today was surprised he made his first tour final. He surfed his heats like video parts. Surfing a stubby, almost rockerless 5’7” fish, Dane got his groove going on the small, quick, low tide rights. Dane buried the board’s rails, but he also combined it with the weightless inventiveness we love him for. It was the furthest Dane had ever been in a tour event, and that proved to be his undoing. For while Mick bounced around before the final, looking like he had another four heats in him, Dane was behind a screen on a saline drip, fighting cramp. Four heats in a day was new territory. The final was slow, but Mick never looked like losing it. He hit the Lowers cobblestones the new world number two and $105,000 richer.

HURLEY PRO TRESTLES FINAL RESULTS:

1 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.40
2 – Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.10

> HURLEY PRO TRESTLES SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Dane Reynolds (USA) 16.77 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.23
SF 2: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.26 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 10.74
HURLEY PRO TRESTLES QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:

QF 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.83 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.50
QF 2: Dane Reynolds (USA) 18.20 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 12.50
QF 3: Kelly Slater (AUS) 13.84 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 8.17
QF 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.50 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.00

HURLEY PRO TRESTLES ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.67 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 5.83
Heat 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.50 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.00
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) 9.50 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 3.67
Heat 4: Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.60 def. Rob Machado (USA) 10.94
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.83 def. Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 12.50
Heat 6: Heitor Alves (BRA) 14.16 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.27
Heat 7: Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.83 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 11.96
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.63 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 10.43

CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 10 RATINGS:
1 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 5486 points
2 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 4550 points
3 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 4348 points
4 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 4272 points
5 – Damien Hobgood (USA) 3974 points
6 – Kelly Slater (USA) 3906 points
7 – Bede Durbidge (AUS) 3760 points
8 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 3685 points
9 – Taylor Knox (USA) 3616 points
10 – Bobby Martinez (USA) 3582 points