Two days of action have come and gone for the Quiksilver Pro France and several big names have bowed out already.  Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Andy Irons, Bruce Irons and Tim Reyes all were eliminated in the second round, while Kelly Slater, Taj Burrow, Bede Durbidge and Dane Reynolds remain to surf another day.

There will be a lay day on Monday with surfing planned to resume Tuesday.  Slater can wrap up his record ninth record world title if a number of conditions are met.  If Slater wins the event, Burrow and Durbidge need to miss the semis for the title to be his.  It’s a tall order, and if he doesn’t win it this week, his next chance will come soon in Spain at the Billabong Pro Mundaka — the place where he won his eight title.

Watch the action live when it goes down on www.quiksilverlive.com.

Here are the match-ups for Round Three.

Round 3 Quiksilver Pro France Match-ups
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 2: Dayyan Neve (AUS) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 3: Chris Ward (USA) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 4: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Jihad Khodr (BRA)
Heat 5: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Mick Campbell (AUS)
Heat 6: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Pancho Sullivan (HAW)
Heat 7: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Joan Duru (FRA)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Gabe Kling (USA)
Heat 10: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA)
Heat 12: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 13: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 14: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 15: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Daniel Wills (AUS)
Heat 16: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA)

Taj Burrow gave it a good run, but in the end Kelly Slater could not be denied as he took home the 2008 Boost Mobile Pro title today at Lower Trestles in California.  Slater, who won the event last year, started his run to victory Wednesday with a perfect 10 in round four and had the edge thanks to his pursuit of a record ninth world title.  Burrow was flying high, dominating his own matches including a semi-final defeat of Jeremy Flores, 17.33 to 16.50.

Burrow took control in the final, scoring a 9.00 and a 9.63 in two of his first three waves, putting Slater in a hole that he almost couldn’t get out.  The climb back started with a 9.70 on his fourth wave and came close with a fifth wave, an 8.37.  He lost priority to Burrow after that and had two small waves while Burrow waited.  Then, with less than two minutes left, Slater caught what he needed, scoring a 9.27 and winning his fifth event of the season on the ASP World Tour and his record 39th world tour win.

Burrow congratulated Slater but expressed some frustration after the event that Slater won the contest, “on a little wave that I gave him.”

“Taj had me killed there, for a little while,” Slater acknowledged, and he also gave credit to the 40-minute heat (instead of the normal 35-minute heat).

With the win, Slater all but locked up his ninth world title and should be able to secure after only two heats during the Quiksilver Pro France, which has a holding period from Sept. 19-28.

Slater took home $75,000 for the win.For more about the event, check out the official Boost Mobile Pro site.

Taj Burrow probably wasn’t happy with his equal-fifth place finish at the Rip Curl Pro Somewhere today — after all, Burrow is ranked No. 4 on the tour and is used to fighting for the finals.  But the $9K in prizemoney did boost Burrow into a very selective club:  the million dollar earnings club.

The Western Australian is only the fifth surfer in history to earn more than $1 million via contest winnngs.  Kelly Slater leads the pack with $1,718,605 followed by Andy Irons ($1,362,733), Sunny Garcia ($1,101,155) and Mark Occhilupo ($1,055,004).  Burrow now has $1,002,797 in career winnings.  Mick Fanning may be the next to join the club in awhile — he has $876,635 in winnings.

                                                                   Bede Durbidge

Only 10 heats of the Rip Curl Pro Search’s Round Two were held today in Indonesia but it was enough to see many of the bigger names advance.  Taj Burrow was the first to take care of business, dismissing local wildcard Komang “Gogo” Suijay, 13.34 to 5.53.  Bede Durbidge followed by ousting fellow Aussie Owen Wright, though Wright did score a big 9.63 on his final wave…  only to have Durbidge match it on his next wave, securing a win.

Bruno Santos, who had one of the top heat scores in Round One, couldn’t repeat the magic in round two and fell to Bobby Martinez.

For a full recap of the action and for all of the results, read on or visit the official site.

Top Seeds Take Charge in Pumping Lefthanders at Rip Curl Pro Search Round 2

SOMEWHERE, Indonesia (Thursday, July 31, 2008) – The 2008 Rip Curl Pro Search returned to its primary venue, ‘somewhere’ in Indonesia, today for Round 2 of competition which saw top seeds dominated the pulsing six-foot (2 metre) lefthanders before conditions deteriorated in the early afternoon.

Stop No. 6 of 11 on the 2008 ASP World Tour, the Rip Curl Pro Search saw the elimination of 10 surfers today before inconsistency forced event organizers to call competition off for the day.

Bede Durbidge (AUS), current ASP World No. 3, bested lethal wildcard Owen Wright this morning in one of the more incendiary heats of the day. Wright secured an incredible forehand barrel for an impressive 9.63 out of a possible 10 only to have Durbidge answer immediately with a 9.63 of his own for a deep tuberide followed by two powerful backhand blasts.

“Owen (Wright) got that incredible barrel right in front of me and I thought I was done,” Durbidge said. “Then that sick one came through and I just held my rail as long as I could and it let me out and I got the score – I was so stoked.”

Durbidge, who finished 5th on the ASP World Tour last year, has remained a contender in 2008, putting up excellent results to maintain his current No. 3 position.

“I’ve had a really good year and I’ve been able to stay really consistent,” Durbidge said. “I had a bit of a slip up in Tahiti, but the rest of the year has been good for me. It’s great to be here in Indonesia and the waves have been really good. Hopefully I can put up another good result.”

Bobby Martinez (USA), current No. 9 on the ASP World Tour, put on an impressive tube-riding display this morning, eliminating dangerous wildcard, and the only other surfer to win an ASP World Tour event in 2008, Bruno Santos (BRA).

“Bruno (Santos) is really dangerous in these kinds of waves,” Martinez said. “In barreling lefthanders, he knows what to do. It’s not as easy as it looks out there, but there are still some incredible barrels and I am happy to get through the heat.”

Adrian Buchan (AUS), current No. 10 on the ASP World Tour, was another goofy-footer to excel in today’s conditions, netting and impressive 17.90 out of a possible 20 to eliminate 2008 rookie Dan Ross (AUS) from Rip Curl Pro Search competition.

“I love it here – it’s like a third home for me,” Buchan said. “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid with my family and the waves are so good. It’s phenomenal out there and we’ve been fortunate enough to have really good waves so far so I’m pumped.”

Rip Curl Pro Search event organizers will reconvene tomorrow at 7am for a possible 7:30am start.

Surfline, official forecasters for the 2008 Rip Curl Pro Search, are calling for the Southwest swell to continue to through tonight and tomorrow before a new swell fills in tomorrow night.

When competition recommences, Dane Reynolds (USA) and Daniel Wills (AUS) will be first up in Heat 11 of Round 2.

The event will be webcast LIVE via http://live.ripcurl.com/

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 2 RESULTS
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.34 def. Komang “Gogo” Suijaya (IDN) 5.53
Heat 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18.46 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 15.73
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.17 def. I Made Garut Widiart (IDN) 7.40
Heat 4: Bobby Martinez (USA) 18.16 def. Bruno Santos (BRA) 10.57
Heat 5: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.67 def. Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 4.63
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 17.90 def. Dan Ross (AUS) 9.80
Heat 7: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 9.27 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 7.50
Heat 8: Tim Reyes (USA) 10.17 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 5.77
Heat 9: Ben Bourgeois (USA) 12.50 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 9.66
Heat 10: Royden Bryson (ZAF) 10.27 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 6.67

REMAINING RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS
Heat 11: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Daniel Wills (AUS)
Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Leonardo Neves (BRA)
Heat 13: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 14: Jay Thompson (AUS) vs. Mikael Picon (FRA)
Heat 15: Ben Dunn (AUS) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 16: Luke Munro (AUS) vs. Mick Campbell (AUS)

The Rip Curl Pro Search kicked off today in Indonesia and it didn’t take long for the usual suspects to dominate the first round.  Kelly Slater scored two huge waves in his heat, including a perfect 10, while Bruce and Andy Irons were close behind with top waves of a 9.77 and 9.73.

The great 6-foot+ waves allowed for some tough competiton to move ahead to round three.  In one head, Joel Parkinson edged wildcard Bruno Santos, 18.40 to 18.03.  Santos’ score was otherwise a top-five score for the day.

The 11th heat featured Chris Ward, Ben Bourgeios and Adrian Buchan facing off and barely a point seperated the three.  Ward got the pass through to Round three with a 17.03, while Bourgeios and Buchan will move to Round Two and fight for survival.

There are a number of familiar faces in the second round, including Taj Burrow (who will face off against local wildcard Komang Goga Suijaya), Bede Durbidge and Bobby Martinez, who may have the toughest job of all as he has to face off against Santos, who won the Billabong Pro Teahupoo in May.

To get more info about the day’s action check out the official site.

The day after defending world champ Mick Fanning was knocked out of the Billabong Pro Tahiti a slew of other top surfers were shown the exit as wildcards dominated the day.

Wildcard Manoa Drollet (above) knocked out Slater in Round three today while Taj Burrow fell to Brazilian Bruno Santos but other top surfers did advance including Andy Irons, Joel Parkinson and CJ Hobgood.

Conditions are good in Tahiti and contest organizers hope to finish up the action on Thursday.  You can catch the live webcast on the official site and read more about Wednesday’s action in the press release below..

Wildcards Leave Slater and Burrow in their Wake in Round 3

TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Wednesday, May 14, 2008) –Eight-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) and last year’s World No. 2 Taj Burrow (AUS) were Round 3 casualties to Billabong Pro Tahiti wildcards today.

Bruno Santos (BRA), who eliminated reigning World Champion Mick Fanning (AUS) in a tight heat yesterday, beat Burrow in a much more convincing fashion today when he earned an early 8.33 to take a lead he never relinquished.

“It’s so good to surf against the best surfers and beat the guys,” Santos said. “This heat was so different than my heat yesterday. I got a big score at the beginning, got priority and then I got another big score, a 9.27, so I am really happy. Hopefully I can keep going, I really want to make the final.”

Local surfer Manoa Drollet (PYF), who won his Round 1 heat over Slater and C.J. Hobgood yesterday, beat the World No. 1 with a 14.00 heat total despite Slater catching the best wave of the heat, a 9.83, in the dying minutes of the heat.

“To beat Kelly Slater is pretty much as good as it gets but to win the contest would be even better,” Drollet said. “I got lucky, again like in the first round, when I got the best wave right at the beginning. I was in the lead and I was more relaxed and there weren’t many waves at the end of the heat, so he couldn’t do anything.”

Slater was handed a priority interference penalty for paddling for a wave Drollet wanted and had priority on so his second scoring ride wasn’t counted. Even if it had, Slater would have come up short 13.26 to Drollet’s 14.00.

“I paddled probably one paddle too much,” Slater said of the interference. “I sort of judged it like Manoa wasn’t going to catch it and I paddled a little more than I obviously would have and then it was too late. That’s the way it goes, I made a little mistake and out here at Teahupoo the chances of coming back from an interference are almost nil.”

Slater will retain his No. 1 rating after the Billabong Pro Tahiti despite his equal 17th finish today. His closest threats still in the competition are Andy Irons (HAW) and Joel Parkinson (AUS), both of whom are rated 6th in the world right now. Should one of them win the event, they would move to World No. 2 behind Slater.

“We’ll see what happens,” Slater said. “Taj went down and Mick went down so that’s good for me if I’m going to look at the whole year,” Slater said. “It gives Andy and Parko a chance to catch up but the best one of them can do is a 5th I think, because they’re going to knock each other out. Then there’s Bede we’ll see how Bede goes. This isn’t his strong wave, but he could get a good result.”
Durbidge, who came into the event World No. 2, didn’t get a strong result and was knocked by an in form Chris Ward (USA) in the second to last heat of the day. Ward earned one of three perfect 10s awarded today, but was the only surfer earning one to advance. Tiago Pires (PRT) earned a 10.00 but lost his heat to Parkinson on an interference mistake and Leonardo Neves (BRA) needed more than a 10.00 and a 6.90 to beat Bruce Irons’ (HAW) 18.33 in Round 2.

C.J. Hobgood, the 2004 winner of the Billabong Pro laid claim to the highest heat score of the event moments after watching Ward blitz – he posted a 9.97 and a 9.67 for a 19.64 heat total in the last heat of the day.

“Wardo pretty much laid the groundwork for that,” Hobgood said. “I was just watching him. What do you do when the waves are cooking? More times than not when you are out here right before dark you get this little window and I was just hoping the waves would turn on and they did.”

ASP Rookies Dane Reynolds (USA) and Jordy Smith (ZAF) went head to head in Heat 3 of Round 3. Reynolds, who is the highest rated rookie on tour at equal 11th, got the better of the exchange and is through to Round 4.

“When I saw that I had Jordy I was like, ‘Oh, no,’ I was so nervous just because of all the hype surrounding us,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t really care who won, I just didn’t want to get smoked and be all embarrassed. I’m stoked I won that one, I’m sure there will be plenty of matchups, probably at JBay and then I’m sure it will be the other way around, so it will be fun.”

There are 18 heats of Billabong Pro Tahiti action remaining and contest officials are hoping to finish the competition by 4pm local time tomorrow. An official call will be made at 6am.

All the action will be webcast LIVE on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com.

Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 3 Results:
Heat 1: Andy Irons (HAW) 15.50 def. Royden Bryson (ZAF) 12.47
Heat 2: Luke Stedman (AUS) 17.53 def. Jay Thompson (AUS) 12.4
Heat 3: Dane Reynolds (USA) 18.17 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.23
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.06 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 10
Heat 5: Dean Morrison (AUS) 17.94 def. Michael Campbell (AUS) 15
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 18.63 def. Ben Bourgeois (USA) 16.40
Heat 7: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 17.66 def. Dayyan Neve (AUS) 11.37
Heat 8: Manoa Drollet (PYF) 14.00 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 9.83
Heat 9: Bruno Santos (BRA) 17.60 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.00
Heat 10: Tim Reyes (USA) 16.74 def. Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 12.33
Heat 11: Kai Otton (AUS) 16.94 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 9.40
Heat 12: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 17.83 def. Danny Wills (AUS) 9.17
Heat 13: Chris Ward (USA) 19.17 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 7.30
Heat 14: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 19.64 def. Luke Munro (AUS) 14.06

Today’s Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 2 Results:
Heat 5: Taylor Knox (USA) 11.83 def. Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 7.44
Heat 6: Dane Reynolds (USA) 14.50 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 12.26
Heat 7: Royden Bryson (ZAF) 13.33 def. Neco Padaratz (BRA) 9.60
Heat 8: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 16.67 def. Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 6.17
Heat 9: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 15.84 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 9.40
Heat 10: Mikael Picon (FRA) 15.07 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 9.83
Heat 11: Tim Reyes (USA) 10.50 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 5.53
Heat 12: Ben Bourgeois (USA) 17.00 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 10.00
Heat 13: Bruce Irons (HAW) 18.33 def. Leonardo Neves (BRA) 16.90
Heat 14: Luke Munro (AUS) 17.76 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 17.24
Heat 15: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.77 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 11.17
Heat 16: Jay Thompson (AUS) 17.10 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 16.67

Remaining Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 3 Match-Ups:
Heat 15: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Miky Picon (FRA)
Heat 16: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Bruce Irons (HAW)

Billabong Pro Tahiti Round 4 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Luke Stedman (AUS)
Heat 2: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
Heat 3: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 4: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Manoa Drollet (PYF)
Heat 5: Bruno Santos (BRA) vs.Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 6: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
Heat 7: Chris Ward (USA) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 8: TBA