“Taj Burrow has won the 2013 Hurley Pro at Lower Trestles!”
Those are words Taj may have been wondering if he’d ever get to hear, after contesting two previous finals at Trestles and having Slater steal a win with a buzzer beater in 2008.
“It feels so good, and I’m glad to tick this one off the list, I really wanted it more than any! It’s so sweet!” claimed the joyous Aussie from the podium.
“I really put so much effort into this event and it feels incredible when it actually unfolds and goes your way. I felt like the good waves were coming my way and I was in the zone.”
Taj managed to milk that little bit extra out of his turns in the weak surf.
Red Bull couldn’t have planned it better for their 21 Days series leading up to the event, with both the featured surfers making the final – where Taj had to fight off a high-flying Julian Wilson in the challenging waist-high surf.
Julian, one of the poster boys for the event, showed plenty of maturity to make the final, but Taj was completely in tune with the ocean – even grabbing his highest scoring wave after he’d handed the younger Australian the upper hand by making a priority mistake.
The final day also saw an incredible change in the WCT rankings, when Travis Logie pulled his best result of the year out the board bag by defeating current rankings leader Mick Fanning to make the quarter finals.
“It seems to be me every year against whoever is in the title race – it’s so weird.” remarked Travis during his post heat interview. “I’m just stoked – it’s my first quarter final of the year and I felt like I’ve been doing some good surfing this year and it paid off in this event.”
The explosive goofyfoot lived up to his ‘giant killer’ moniker by defeating Mick, but was beaten in the semi finals by Michel Bourez – who was looking remarkably quick and powerful in the weak surf.
Julian may have lost out in the final, but his technical surfing earned him the Phantom True Innovation award.
With the early exit of now WCT number two, Kelly Slater, it means Mick Fanning has leap frogged the 11-time world champ to take the rankings lead, while Jordy has moved to 3rd. With his victory at Trestles Taj has jumped to 4th, and is followed closely by Joel Parkinson who rounds off the top 5.
Jordy will be disappointed to have lost his semi final against eventual winner Taj, as he would have been looking ahead at a rematch of the 2013 Mr Price Pro against Julian Wilson, had he won.
One of the bigger surfers on tour, Jordy was electric in his quarter final heat against Kai Otton – which left guest commentator Mick Fanning puzzled – “I don’t know how such a big human moves so well in such small waves?”
Although he would have liked to have gone all the way to the final and grabbed the win, Jordy’s semi-final finish should give him the momentum he needs going into back-to-back events in France and Portugal.
Following a disappointing loss to Travis Logie in Round 5, current ratings leader Mick Fanning explained how he would have liked to extend the lead which he now holds;
“It would have been good to get more of a lead, but this has been my first real throw-away event for the year, so it might be good to reset, refocus and move forward into these last three events.”
“It happened in my 2007 (title-winning) year, where everything went really well up until this event, then I had a poor result and it just took a bit of refocussing. I went on to win France and do well in the European leg”
The Dream Tour now moves to Hossegor for the Quiksilver Pro France in October, and with the Top 4 now closely stacked – one mistake from here could see their title chances slip away.
Watch highlights from the Hurley Pro Trestles on www.thehurleypro.com
HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES FINAL RESULT:
1 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.07
2 – Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.97
HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES SEMIFINALS RESULTS:
SF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.83 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.10
SF 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.40 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.43
HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES QUARTERFINALS RESULTS:
QF 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.67 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 12.33
QF 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.93 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 13.70
QF 3: Michel Bourez (PYF) 17.90 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 14.00
QF 4: Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.64 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.04
HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES ROUND 5 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Kai Otton (AUS) 11.50 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 8.83
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.60 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.47
Heat 3: Travis Logie (ZAF) 13.23 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.74
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) 14.10 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 12.93
CURRENT ASP WCT TOP 10:
1 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 41,900 points
2 – Kelly Slater (USA) 40,700 points
3 – Jordy Smith (ZAF) 35,700 points
4 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 35,400 points
5 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 32,450 points
6 – Josh Kerr (AUS) 29,600 points
7 – Julian Wilson (AUS) 28,850 points
8 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 27,500 points
9 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 27,200 points
10 – Michel Bourez (PYF) 26,500 points
10 – Nat Young (USA) 26,500 points
Check out the official press release below.
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TAJ BURROW TAKES DOWN JULIAN WILSON TO WIN 2013 HURLEY PRO
Taj Burrow (AUS), 35, winner of the Hurley Pro at Trestles.
LOWER TRESTLES, San Clemente, CA (Wednesday, September 18, 2013) – Taj Burrow (AUS), 35, has won the Hurley Pro at Trestles in a hard-fought Final over fellow Australian Julian Wilson (AUS), 24, in two-to-four foot (1 metre) waves at Lower Trestles.
Stop No. 7 of 10 on the ASP World Championship Tour (WCT), the Hurley Pro at Trestles victory marks Burrow’s first ASP WCT win this season and 12th of his career.
Burrow’s win would come at the hands of an action packed match up, with the two Australians delivering a series of exciting exchanges in the high-scoring final. While Wilson would put together multiple combinations on the Lowers rights, Burrow’s high-scores were found via both a powerful backhand attack on a wedging left and a lengthy righthand runner.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Burrow said. “I really put so much effort in to this event and it just feels so incredible when it unfolds and goes your way. I felt like the good waves came my way and I was just in the zone. I was hoping to get things snowballing and I never felt like I put together my best surfing. I was just finding my feet more and more each heat. My board kept getting better and better and it felt great towards the end. That’s how you want to win an event, peak at the right time. I knew Julian (Wilson) would be tough. Even if I saw a wedged out close out I would have taken it if I had priority because I know what he can do. I surfed as smart as I possibly could. I thought I made a couple of errors, but they ended up playing out.”
Burrow’s win at the Hurley Pro at Trestles marks his third career Final at the venue and the progressive natural-footer was elated to take out a win after two career runner-up finishes at Lowers.
“It feels so good to tick this one off the list, I really wanted it more than any,” Burrow said. “I’ve had two second places and one really close one with Kelly (Slater) that I lost in the last minute. That one tore me up for a long time. I just couldn’t be happier that I got it.”
Burrow’s Hurley Pro at Trestles victory puts him at No. 4 on the ASP WCT.
Julian Wilson was electric throughout the entirety of the Hurley Pro at Trestles, launching massive aerials and fully-committed turns on both the lefts and rights of Lowers while posting some of the highest scores of competition. Wilson would get off to an early lead in the Hurley Pro at Trestles Final, but was unable to put a stop to Burrow’s efforts, finishing runner-up overall.
“It’s a great result and I would have rather gone one better,” Wilson said. “It was pretty tricky out there and I made too many mistakes and wasn’t in rhythm. Strategy was really important, but also, I want to go big and I wasn’t looking for the perfect wave. I thought I could do something big on something that wasn’t that perfect. Overall, it’s a good result and I had a good day. I want to keep moving up and win the next one.”
Wilson’s runner-up finish moves him to No. 7 on the ASP WCT.
Jordy Smith (ZAF), 25, was a standout at the Hurley Pro at Trestles, consistently posting high scores while advancing to the Semifinals. The powerful South African was unable to put a stop to a rampaging Taj Burrow in the Semifinals, however, finishing equal 3rd overall.
“TB (Taj Burrow) got that first one and that set him up for the rest of the heat,” Smith said. “I felt like I didn’t have to do much to get the big scores. All I needed was an opportunity, but I surfed my best and maybe over-surfed some waves. I did the best I could and I’m happy with my performance. It would have been nice to make the Final, but all around it was a good contest and I’m really frothing for France.”
Michel Bourez (PYF), 27, was lethal on the lefts and rights of Lower Trestles, unloading his signature power game en route to the Semifinals. The Tahitian would earn the day’s high heat total of 17.90 in the Quarterfinals, but was unable to find a rhythm in his Semifinals clash against Julian Wilson despite a valiant effort and would finish equal 3rd.
“It was really small and hard for me to pick the right waves and I was going too slow,” Bourez said. “With the tide changing, it was hard to figure out because it changed so much after my Quarterfinal. Julian (Wilson) played a really good game. He started strong and kept waiting for the best ones. That was the only thing to do I think.”
With 11-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA), 41, finishing equal 13th at the Hurley Pro at Trestles, two-time ASP World Champion Mick Fanning(AUS), 32, has taken over poll position on the 2013 ASP World Title Race via his 9th place finish. While Fanning’s Round 5 exit marks his poorest result of 2013, he’s looking to reset for a strong finish entering the final leg of the ASP WCT season.
“I came up a bit short in my heat yesterday and then I just made one mistake at the start of the heat and Travis (Logie) got that 8 and there wasn’t anything to fight back,” Fanning said. “Sometimes that happens. For me, to be bettering results, I had to get a 3rd and it was still a lot of work to do, but it would have been good to get more of a lead. This is my first throwaway for the year and it might be a good time to reset and refocus moving in to these last few events. Going in to these last three events, you want to win events and I’m just going to throw everything at it.”
For highlights of the Hurley Pro at Trestles log on to www.thehurleypro.com.
The next stop on the 2013 ASP WCT will be the Quiksilver Pro France, which holds a waiting period from September 26 through October 6, 2013.
For additional ASP information log on to www.aspworldtour.com.
