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Slater takes Billabong Pro J Bay

Written by azpunkazme

Friday, 18 July 2008

Billabong Pro 08 The Billabong Pro Jefferies Bay (South Africa - Thursday, July 17, 2008) was won by surfing machine, Kelly Slater. At 36 Slater is going for his 9th WCT title, can he do it? nothing is a sure thing but he is currently 1262 points ahead of No.2 Aussie Joel 'Parko' Parkinson.

Slater beat Mick Fanning 16.73 to 9.40 in the Final Billabong Pro. The conditions were far from perfect, the swell was running at 2m and onshore winds made pulling more than 3-4 manoeuvres difficult, not usual for J Bay! Victorious Slater was quoted as saying "I didn’t realize I was going to be overwhelmed by it, but I haven’t been in this position before, at this point of the year, with this many wins”. He continued, “There are great things going on in my life so I’m just trying to soak it up and be appreciative”.

The Billabong Pro is Slaters forth victory this year on the ASP tour, with none of the other top 20 pro's winning an event, this puts Kelly in an excellent position to claim his 9th World Title. Last years WCT champ Mick Fanning said, "I guess it’s not over till it’s over, but it’s like climbing Everest and he’s halfway up the bloody hill". Obvioulsy things can change quickly and with 6 events remaining on the tour, there is still much to play for.

But as Slater himself said, “I’d like to think I have it the bag but I have to be realistic, it’s early on – we’re not quite half way yet, we have 11 events this year and this is number five. Last year at this point I was looking at Mick [Fanning] that way. He had a first, a couple seconds and a third so I’d imagine being on the same side of that coin and looking at someone with four firsts and a throwaway is probably tough to look at.”

Fanning really underperformed in the final and was pretty annoyed, “I surfed like an idiot,” Fanning said. “I had the opportunity to win the whole thing and I fell and I don’t know why. I don’t know what happened, I just had a shocker. I was feeling great, I just couldn’t stay on my board.” Currently sitting at No.4 Fanning will have to dig deep if he hopes to defend his 2007 crown.

Taj Burrow, shares Fanning’s sentiments on Slater’s victory today. “Kelly wins another final, enough said, unbelievable.” Burrow said. “The door is really closing as far as I can see it. He’s got a ridiculous amount of keepers now so… how many events left? Not enough!”

The next event on the 2008 ASP World Tour remains undisclosed. The “Search” event will be held July 30-August 10, 2008, “Somewhere.”

For more details visit ASP and Billabong Pro