10/28/09: Mick Fanning beats Bede Durbidge in the final. Joel Parkinson gets 3rd. The title race is going to come down to Pipe. Parkinson's ankle might be bad but if he proved one thing in this contest it's that he can still tube ride with the best. His 10 in the quarter-finals was mental and he did get two tens at Pipe last year so he could have a slight edge over Mick out there. If Fanning gets 3rd at Pipe then Parko has to win. If Fanning gets 2nd at Pipe it's all over. Of course that scenario isn't going to happen cuz it's going to be Chris Ward and Mason Ho in the final. The womens started today and Coco Ho won her first heat on her Mayhem Shape.

10/27/09: The surf finally delivered and we got to see exactly what we've been waiting for - 8 foot beach break barrels complete with broken boards and broken bodies. It was few and far between but when the guys did get the waves it was well worth it. Joel Parkinson is still going as is Mick Fanning. Parko had a nail biter heat against Kai Otton then beat Bobby with a sick 10 point ride. Fanning is still going as well after beating Freddy P and Timmy Reyes (who climbed into the top 27 with this result). The Owen Wright kid looks like he’s real deal but was unfortunate to take a heavy wipeout that had him exiting the water against Damien Hobgood in the quarters. He still won the heat when Damien couldn't get the 7.01 he needed. Apparently he ruptured his eardrum and probably won't be able to surf his semi-final, thus giving Fanning a walk through to the final. Sucks for Parko who still has to beat Durbidge, whom we write off consistently on this site yet he somehow always proves us wrong. And if you thought we weren't going to bitch about Chris Ward not being able to surf grinding barrels in his heat then you were wrong. Why didn’t the contest directors run the womens event when it was slow and mushy? The Rip Curl site states “Surfline, official forecasters for the 2009 Rip Curl Pro Search, are calling for solid surf to maintain throughout the next several days. The forecast for tomorrow shows another promising day of great waves, so it’s an 8AM call for the Men’s Semi Finals and the Women’s Round 1 heats.” Are you f*cking kidding me? So now the men are going to finish in three heats (well actually two) and then the Women are going to surf 8 foot double-up tubes? Not that a few of the girls can’t handle it but if the waves do look like they did today it’s most likely they will move the womens to the backup venue while Supertubos goes off for the remainder of the contest. Finally a wave that could challenge everyone on tour and we don’t get to see them ALL surf it. Tiago must be pissed.

10/23/09: Chris Ward goes down to Micky Picon in round 1. Not much else to say. Even if Ward wins Pipeline we're not sure he'll re-qualify. We kind of knew he was in trouble when the web announcers said that no one on tour had even surfed this wave except Micky Picon, "he surfs here all the time". Ward did do a nice backside reverse, giving us a little glimpse of his true talent. Hopefully Pipe is good and Ward can go out with a bang. The waves f*cking sucked. We heard that Josh Kerr actually apologized to the web viewers for having to watch them surf such sh*tty waves in his post heat interview. Of course, if we sponsored a 'CT it would always be 6-8 foot offshore barrels and it would be Dane vs Jordy vs Curren vs Occy vs Parko vs Fanning vs Bruce vs Andy vs Kelly vs Ward vs Cory in the final. Don't worry though, the action is really going to heat up in round 2 when Bede Durbidge surfs against Marlon Lipke. At least Coco is still going.

10/22/09 Day one: The first 8 heats of round 1 were ran today using the new format, which we think kind of sucks. Besides our obvious bias due to the fact that our riders are usually seeded into the first round we'd like to see everyone surf twice. Luck has a lot to do with heat advancement and half of the WT heat wins go to the guy who caught two better waves than the other guy, regardless of who surfed better. So giving the guys two chances to get through to the all important 17th place really makes a difference in having a better top 28 at the end of the year - and thus a better tour. Until the judges tip the balance a little more toward rewarding the best surfer in the heat instead of the wave choice winner - we'd like to see the original double elimination format. AND The public wants to see these guys surf so why not give them more of what they want. Even if no one gets eliminated there's still a lot on the line. The difference between a 33rd and 17th is huge for some of these guys. Davo surfed against Pat Gudauskas and it was a close heat. Davo had the lead the whole heat until the end when Pat got the score he was looking for to advance into round two. Good thing Davo is coming off a second place finish in the last event.

Chris Ward will be surfing in heat 11 against Michael Picon when competition commences with the last 8 heats of round one. Wardo really has to step it up as he is in danger of not requalifying. Let's just hope he shows up for his heat this time.

Photos by Greg Weatherall