Monday, December 15, 2008

Kelly Slater Wins the 2008 Pipeline Masters


On Friday Dec 12th Kelly Slater won his 6th Pipeline Masters in Hawaii defeating follow American Chris Ward. Pipeline was the last stop on the ASP Tour and is the most prestigious event in surfing. Slater paddled out in eight to 10 foot waves at Pipeline four times today, beating Chris Ward (USA) 14.00 to 7.23 in the in the first man-on-man final* held at the venue in eight years. Slater’s heat totals in the three heats prior to the final were 19.00, 18.63 and 19.40 – all out of a possible 20 points.

This years Pipeline Masters victory was doubly sweet given Parkinson made headlines earlier in the week by earning the first-ever perfect 20 out of 20 heat total at Pipeline – only the second perfect heat total in ASP history under the two wave format. Also Parko won the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, which is the highest score for competitions at Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and the Pipeline Masters.

So now this the ASP Surfing tour all wrapped for 2008, this is how the final top ten standings look.

1) Kelly Slater (USA)
2) Bede Durbidge (AUS)
3) Taj Burrow (AUS)
4) Joel Parkinson (AUS)
5) C.J. Hobgood (USA)
6) Adrian Buchan (AUS)
7) Adriano de Souza (BRA)
8) Mick Fanning (AUS)
9) Bobby Martinez (USA)
10) Jeremy Flores (FRA)

At the age of 36, Kelly Slater’s 50-6 record is the most dominant in pro surfing history, which validates what we already knew, that he’s also surfing better than ever. But what does it all mean? Is Kelly Slater going to come back in 2009 to compete for his 10th ASP World Championship? I guess we will see on February 28 at the Quiksliver Pro, Gold Coast Australia, tour stop. I can’t wait for another year of the exciting ASP Tour.


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