The King Is Still The King!

Blake Thornton / March 10

Well what a week! Kelly Slater has proved once again why he is and forever will remain (in my opinion) the greatest surfer of all time. As if winning his 10th world title last year wasn’t enough, he returns in 2011 looking faster and fitter then all his fellow competitors who are close to half his age! The first event of the asp World Championship Tour, the Quiksilver Pro kicked off on the Gold Coast at Snapper Rocks, and as hard as it was to watch it (seeing I was in the event last year) I couldn’t drag myself away from the TV.

ONE HD jumped on board to broadcast the entire event live on free to air TV. It was awesome! Kelly methodically took care of opponent after opponent and managed to get the upper hand over Australian Taj Burrow in a lackluster final, much to the dismay of all the Australian supporters lining the rocks. Kelly being Kelly though is a crowd favourite everywhere he goes and soon had everyone behind him as if they had been from the get-go.

Taj was looking like the surfer to beat all event and was part of the greatest heat I have ever witnessed against Brazilian Adriano De Souza, a fiery little competitor who opened strong and had Taj playing catch-up all heat, searching for huge scores. Taj stayed strong, fired himself up and bought home the bacon in one of the highest scoring heats in the event’s history, check it out:

I see Taj as one of only a couple of guys vying for the world title this year and hope he can snatch it away from Kelly.

I am going to be real honest, usually I take a nap or go do something else when the women hit the water at the Roxy Pro which runs side by side with the Quiksilver Pro, but this year the level of surfing has doubled from last year. It use to be a little boring to watch but everything about it was better this year… the girls are taking real pride in there appearance (wearing real skimpy bikinis for one, usually reserved for catwalk models) and really pushing the limits of their performance. It was actually a real pleasure to watch and the future is bright for the sport. I have thrown in some images and videos, some displaying the surfing talent and others displaying there natural talent, if you get my drift….