BIG GUNS BLAZE IN ROUND THREE OF BOOST MOBILE PRO

News provided by ASP World Tour on 16 September 2005

With an epic two metre (six foot) plus swell arriving overnight, the Boost Mobile Pro presented by Quiksilver powered into round three today with the top five ranked surfers dominating proceedings.

In front of the huge crowd at Trestles, located just south of San Clemente California, Kelly Slater (USA), Andy Irons (HAW), and Australians Mick Fanning, Trent Munro and Phil Macdonald, ranked one to five on the Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour, put on phenomenal performances to overcome their foes.

Much of the day’s focus was on the progression of Slater and Irons as potentially they could meet up again in the final for the third time this year and both showed fantastic form as both left their opposition needing two good scoring rides to catch up.

Slater’s opponent, local Californian, Dane Reynolds appeared to be awestruck as Slater launched aerial after aerial while the crowd roared their appreciation. Slater however revealed later that going into the heat he was nervous.

“I call him ‘Danger’ and he ripped the other day,” said Slater. “He definitely put me on call. I had two days to think about it and I was definitely worried. It was probably the most worried I’ve been about a wildcard. It felt like surfing against Andy or somebody first up. I’m glad I got that one out of the way.”

Slater will now face a rampaging Troy Brooks (AUS) in round four. Brooks defeated his Quiksilver teammate Travis Logie (ZAF) to move through and is on a roll after a strong result in the previous event in Japan.

“He has a great knack for picking the right wave and he’s a really smart
competitor,” said Slater about Brooks. “He might even bust out a superman air. He has a few tricks up his sleeve. He always pulls reverses and airs that other people don’t.”

Directly after the Slater/Reynolds showdown Irons came out and tore into the waves with a vengeance. On his opening ride he executed everything from frontside tail slides, to vertical re-entries to floaters to aerials. Like the heat prior the crowd were hooting loudly and Irons returned to the beach with a huge grin on his face.

“It was so great to get Trestles this good with only one other guy out,” said Irons. “It was pretty solid out there but luckily we could still ride our small wave boards. It was highly rippable out there and was sort of like a moving skate park!”

Looking confident in his defeat of fellow Australian Kirk Flintoff, Fanning took to the waves with some monstrous swooping frontside carves. Looking for his third win of the season, Fanning is still very much in the running for the world title race but is showing no signs that the pressure is on. Flintoff made a late charge in the heat but a composed Fanning waited patiently for the right wave and came home strong.

“I was stoked to finish that one strong,” said Fanning. “I was stoked that the left breaking waves weren’t that good out there because Kirk really flies on them. The rights suit me and I’m hoping that it stays like this for Sunday. I’m really stoked that I’ve knocked that one over and will live to fight another day. “

In a later upset, South African Greg Emslie continued his giant-killing spree when he took out Florida’s Damien Hobgood. Enjoying the big open faces here at Trestles, Emslie rode some of the biggest waves of the day and even snapped his board on his last ride.

“I’m really very happy as it was a very hard heat,” said Emslie. “It was a bit of a slow heat for waves but I was patient and I’m stoked to be going through to the next round. On that wave I broke my board I knew it was going to happen. It was a big wave and the lip smacked me right in the head – I’m lucky I didn’t get hurt!

“But I feel very comfortable here,” Emslie continued. “I live on the beach in South Africa and I wake up to surf waves like these here every day. Trestles is an unreal wave and really lets you open up.”

Also standing out was Taylor Knox (USA) who accounted for Lee Winkler (AUS) in heat three. Knox put each turn heavily on rail using his knowledge of the break to his advantage while in the opening heat of the day Taj Burrow (AUS) busted out all his tricks to take down Tim Curren (USA).

To wrap up the day Curren made up for the disappointment of being eliminated from the main event by taking out the Mazda Air Show with a huge frontside aerial double handed rail grab.

Curren himself pockets $US10,000 plus another $US10,000 will be donated to the NSSA fund in memory of Jason Bogle. Second placed Cory Lopez will also have $US10,000 donated to the fund in his name.

Jason Bogle was an aspiring professional surfer from Hawaii whose life was cut short due to a rare form of bone cancer

Due to State Park regulations the Boost Mobile Pro of Surf presented by Quiksilver will be put on hold for tomorrow and will be completed on Sunday. Also talking place will be the Foster’s Expression Session and a celebrity surf off.

For the full round four draw head to www.aspworldtour.com or www.boostmobile.com

Results round four:

Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.10 def Tim Curren (USA) 14.66
Heat 2: Jake Paterson (AUS) 13.83 def Sunny Garcia (HAW) 10.00
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) 16.50 def Lee Winkler (AUS) 12.70
Heat 4: Trent Munro (AUS) 15.27 def Shea Lopez (USA) 6.27
Heat 5: Kalani Robb (HAW) 14.20 def Nathan Hedge (AUS) 6.50
Heat 6: Tim Reyes (USA) 14.50 def Cory Lopez (USA) 13.93
Heat 7: Troy Brooks (AUS) 15.67 def Travis Logie (ZAF) 15.00
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.87 def Dane Reynolds (USA) 8.84
Heat 9: Andy Irons (HAW) 16.67 def Guilherme Herdy (BRA) 10.83
Heat 10: Richard Lovett (AUS) 15.00 def Marcelo Nunes (BRA) 14.66
Heat 11: Phil Macdonald (AUS) 15.33 def Luke Stedman (AUS) 13.23
Heat 12: Greg Emslie (ZAF) 16.16 def Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.84
Heat 13: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.00 def Kirk Flintoff (AUS) 13.50
Heat 14: Paulo Moura (BRA) 18.00 def Peterson Rosa (BRA) 13.00
Heat 15: CJ Hobgood (USA) 13.50 def Shane Beschen (USA) 13.33
Heat 16: Victor Ribas (BRA) 16.83 def Fred Patacchia Jnr (HAW) 15.00