A slight jump in swell saw day 4 of the Rip Curl Pro Search - Somewhere in Indonesia, kick off bright and early this morning. Featuring all of the round 3 heats, the ruggedly offshore 6 ft left walls were hitting the inside section down inside the bay a bit, and provided a solid canvas for the world's best to draw their lines across. The slight bay wind blowing early on meant that any false moves were paid for with a tumble down the face, and moves had to be attacked with total gusto and abandon to be pulled off.

Highlights of the day included Australian, Joel Parkinson's commanding performance to just totally destroy South African, Roydon Bryson, combo-ing the poor guy within 3 minutes of the heat's start. The action had by this time moved out to the main peak of this Indonesian gem, and Joel's back hand tube riding was simply sublime.

The big shock result for the year though was Portugal's Tiago Pires win over current ratings leader and demi god, Kelly Slater. It seemed a done deal when Kelly had Tiago in a combination situation with 5 minutes left, but needing a total of 15 odd points, the quiet Portuguese shredder grabbed a 9 and an 8 to do the King up. There are very few, if any, surfers who have ever come back to beat Kelly from combo land, and no doubt Tiago will be a hero in Portugal for ever.

Another highlight was the monkey who dropped a large chunk of wood off the bluff into the water, narrowly missing a paddling surfer who was oblivious to the whole thing, but the monkey's reaction seemed to indicate that he knew what he was doing. Towards the end of the day, the swell backed off a bit and was neither here nor there, too small for the outside and too big for the inside racetrack section, but there were good waves to be had still - the art of selection was paramount, and with only one day of competition left to finish the event, contest director Damien Hardman's selection skills will also be put to the test tomorrow.

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