Dean Morrison Defeats Slater, Irons heads to SemisPosted at 09:44:32 PM
As the field size continues to shrink the intensity of competition continues to grow, I don't know if that sentence really makes sense but the heats that went down today were pretty intense and heated. Heated heats, anyway, talk of the day, heat of the year, was Kelly Slater versus Dean Morrison. Dean and Kelly had a back and forth battle down to the horn today on "el gringo", the crazy thing about a heat with Kelly Slater from what I can tell is that even if you have a ten you still have to sweat it. Dean Morrison had a ten, only the second one in this competition, and he had a bunch of decent waves, Kelly needed a 9 point something with seconds remaining on the clock, now with most people you might think game over but Kelly Slater is a fierce competitor so you can never count him out. Today as the horn went off kelly was on his feet fighting tooth and nail for the 9 point score. He didn't get the score he needed but he did manage once again to please this Chilean crowd and teach us all a lesson about never giving up, other junior competitors in similar conditions sit back and wallow in the loss that is about to happen, seasoned vets like Slater and Irons fight to the bitter end, knowing that it's not over until it is over. I guess that's difference between a good competitor and a great competitor.......anway, check out the videos, you'll see.Slater and his Fans Slater fighting to the finnish The dingo, Dean Morrison heading into the heat of the day Cory Lopez, a season vet and one on my new personal favorites, had an unfortunate and odd run in with Joel Parkinson in the first heat. Both guys paddled out for the first wave and both got to their feet, but since "el gringo" breaks both ways and it was hard to tell who had priority. They both took off to go and were about to turn into each other, Joel at one point was pushing or holding Cory. Apparently there is some sort of penalty system in place for interfering when someone has priority, in most waves it is pretty obvious but "el gringo" is not just a left of a right. Anyway, the sad story is that Cory interference penalty so his second scoring wave only counted for half. The extra sad part is that Cory had a 9 point wave, along with a bunch of seven and eight point waves. So he actually out surfed Joel but lost the heat. Bummer. In the end everything was cool, high fives and hand shakes and good sportsmanship all around. Anyway, here is what really happened, results and what not and stellar photos of surfing, stuff and things.... RIP CURL PRO SEARCH CHILE QUARTERFINAL RESULTS: QF 1: Andy Irons (HAW) 14.67 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 5.43 RIP CURL PRO SEARCH REMAINING QUARTERFINAL MATCH-UPS: QF 2: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Mick Fanning (AUS) QF 3: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. CJ Hobgood (USA) QF 4: Bruno Santos (BRA) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA) RIP CURL PRO SEARCH CHILE ROUND 4 RESULTS: Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.26 def. Cory Lopez (USA) 12.80 Heat 2: Andy Irons (HAW) 17.10 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 11.17 Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) 11.34 def. Daniel Wills (AUS) 6.93 Heat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.44 def. Chris Ward (USA) 9.27 Heat 5: Dean Morrison (AUS) 18.83 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 17.37 Heat 6: CJ Hobgood (USA) 13.34 def. Fred Patacchia (HAW) 4.60 Heat 7: Bruno Santos (BRA) 10.84 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 6.83 Heat 8: Damien Hobgood (USA) 15.63 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 1.60 |
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