While we are only about half-way through the 2008 ASP World Tour, we are already becoming witnesses to one of the all-time great performances throughout the course of the surfing year. Eight-time world champion Kelly Slater defeated last year’s champ Mick Fanning in the final of the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay earlier today for his fourth victory at the prestigious South African break.

Slater has now won 4 out of the first 5 events in 2008, and with the victory at J-Bay he has all but essentially sealed his record 9th world title. A gracious Slater had this to say following his 38th tour victory - “I didn’t realize I was going to be overwhelmed by it, but I haven’t been in this position before, at this point of the year, with this many wins, there are great things going on in my life so I’m just trying to soak it up and be appreciative.”

The morning started off with classic Jeffreys Bay conditions keeping the 4-6 ft swell in almost perfect shape. However, after just a few heats in the morning, the wind turned onshore for the quarters, semis, and final. Both Slater and Fanning had issues adjusting to the bump and crumble that was being offered up. “It was really challenging,” Slater said. “You really have to change your frame of mind because we were looking at waves the other day where we were getting 30-45 second rides and doing six to eight maneuvers and now we’re looking at waves where if you get three moves it’s a good score. It’s really hard to change your perception on how you are going to surf a wave. I didn’t really catch on until the very end of that heat when I realized I could get a three move wave and probably seal it.” Fanning appeared uncharacteristically sloppy, even falling on waves that held opportunities for high scores. While the Billabong broadcast team wondered aloud if it was equipment issues, an obviously Fanning quickly put that all to rest. “I surfed like an idiot,” Fanning said. “I had the opportunity to win the whole thing and I fell and I don’t know why. I don’t know what happened, I just had a shocker. I was feeling great, I just couldn’t stay on my board.”

With the rest of the Top 44 now with deflated hopes for a world championship, it will be intriguing to see how the year plays out. Aside from Fanning’s bid to repeat, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, and Andy Irons all came into the year with very high aspirations to come out on top. They are all very aware of the difficult, if not impossible, task that now lies in front of them. “Kelly wins another final, enough said, unbelievable.” Burrow said. “The door is really closing as far as I can see it. He’s got a ridiculous amount of keepers now so… how many events left? Not enough!”

It sure does appear that way. Congratulations Kelly Slater, winner of the 2008 Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay!

There are few breaks in the world that contain the prestige and history of South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay. Its a wave unlike any other that has been known to bring out the best in many of the greatest surfers to ever step foot on a board. Tomson, Curren, Occy, Slater, and so many other surf legends have seen J-Bay be the site of some of their most impressive and inspired performances. And now with the arrival of the 2008 Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay upon us this week, we have another opportunity to witness a few of the worlds best on one of its greatest waves.

The holding period for the Billabong Pro J-Bay, the fifth of 11 events on the 2008 ASP World Tour, is set to open on July 10. While for us it means a chance to see the top 44 and others do work at Jeffreys Bay , for everyone taking part in the tour it only means one thing - possibly the last hope to putting an end to Kelly Slater cruising through to his 9th world championship.

Current world No. 2, Joel Parkinson knows this better than anyone, and is even hoping for the Aussie legend Mark Occhilupo to help stop the damage that Slater has been inflicting. “When it comes down to perfect 6 foot J-Bay, you know Occy has still got it. He is in the trials, so hopefully he gets into the main event and helps the rest of us by taking Kelly out early,” said Parko. Parkinson himself is extremely well suited for the long burly right, and Slater knows that he will be one of his biggest obstacles standing in front of his 4th win at J-Bay, as well as his fourth victory on the ‘08 tour. “JBay has been one of my best events,” Slater said. “I’ve had three wins out there, but it’s obviously a good event for Taj, a good event for Parko, a good event for Andy and it suits Bede really well.”

The stop at Jeffreys Bay has solidified itself years ago as one of the truly special events of each year. The chance to see another round of memorable performances is something that shouldn’t be passed up. Even those who aren’t huge WCT followers can appreciate the magic of seeing these guys carve up the endless walls that J-Bay is known and loved for.

You can give it a peep for yourself as the 2008 Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay will be webcast live on aspworldtour.com as well as billabongpro.com

Coming into the 2008 ASP World Tour there was quite a bit expected from Kauai’s Andy Irons. Following a disappointing 2007 campaign - at least according to the standard set by the 3x world champion - there were many who expected A.I. to come back to form and put himself into a viable position to regain a crown that fell upon the head of someone besides himself and Kelly Slater for the first time since the abbreviated 2001 tour.

He is currently sitting at 8th in the WCT rankings following the Australian and South Pacific legs of this year’s tour. While I’m sure there would be a Trestles line-up worth of surfers who would gladly take an 8th place ranking a third of the way through the year, this clearly isn’t good enough for a surfer who will undoubtedly go down as one of the all-time greats both in and out of competitive surfing.

Andy’s frustration with his current position came to a head and was visible to all (actually, with the malfunctioning Globe webcast it may or may not have been all that visible….but that is another post in itself) with his antics throughout his loss to fellow Hawaiian Fred Patacchia. Between his boxing matches with the ocean, his punting his board away on kick-outs, and his eventual dropping in on Freddy P and picking up a last second interference he made it known that he is not at all happy about simply being ranked in the top 10. He wants it all, world title or bust. And to be honest, in my opinion he is the only surfer on tour who has any shot of keeping Slater from what many consider to be his inevitable 9th world championship.

How can that be? Well the simple fact that Andy has performed nowhere near to the level he is capable of is something he can look to as a positive. Yeah, he is in 8th and up against a seemingly impossible climb to reach Kelly, especially with Kelly appearing determined to end the whatever title hopes anyone else may dream of at the upcoming Billabong Pro J-Bay. But if Andy can somehow put himself anywhere near the top heading into the Hawaii stretch, he and he alone will be the only surfer able to pull off the miracle it will take to deny ‘the king.’ Of course the North Shore will have to cooperate and do the exact opposite of what it did last year in the form of swell.

I’m not sure Andy will have much of a chance if he’s forced to scrape up scores on meager waves. But if it does, and Andy is close and back to the form that has made him one of the most exciting surfers to watch and a living legend in his own right….Love him or hate him, he will be the only obstacle standing in the way of what looks to be clear path for Kelly Slater’s eventual crowning(again).

1. Kelly Slater (USA) 2810 points
2. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 2340 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 2318 points
4. Andy Irons (HAW) 2196 points
5. Mick Fanning (AUS) 1989 points
6. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 1932 points
7. Taj Burrow (AUS) 1886 points
8. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 1874 points
9. Kai Otton (AUS) 1800 points
10. Dane Reynolds (USA) 1742 points

A lot of big names bowed out early at the Billabong Pro Tahiti today as Kelly Slater, Taj Burrow, Bede Durbidge, and Jordy Smith were all defeated in round 3 action at 4-6 foot Teahupoo.

Kelly Slater wasn’t looking too sharp again and was caught a couple times dropping in too deep, getting drilled in the head by one of the heaviest waves in the world. It didn’t matter though, as he suffered an early interference penalty and was literally surfing a heat he couldn’t possibly win. It seems there’s something about going up against local favorite Manoa Drollet that gets in Slater’s head, as he performed similarly when then two competed against each other in rd. 1 action. “This is just one of many events, you’re going to have throw-aways,” said Slater.

The highly anticipated matchup between Jordy Smith and Dane Reynolds saw Smith go down as Dane was on absolute fire. If he continues to surf like he did in round three, Dane could possibly in serious contention for his first ever ‘CT victory, only three events into his rookie season. He was looking good. CJ Hobgood is another surfer to watch this event. He posted an amazing 19.64 in round three and has been looking awfully good here at ‘Chopes. Seems super-confident as well when you listen to his interviews and he no doubt wants to keep the Billabong Pro Tahiti title in the Hobgood family.

Andy Irons and Joel Parkinson - who are both tied for current world #6 - can definitely smell blood. All five surfers ahead of them exited early from this event and now they’ll definitely be taking advantage and looking to gain as many points as possible. Look to both of these guys to make a run at winning this event.

Kelly Slater has long been known as the ‘king of surfing’. Is he now going after Budweiser for the title of ‘king of beer’ as well?

No, Not really. But in a tribute to the 8-times world champion, Anheuser Busch (the self proclaimed king-of-beer) distributed Hinano Beer, in association with Quiksilver, has launched a limited edition beer-can designed with the original “SL8R” Quiksilver logo. If you ask me, the can looks more like an energy drink than it does a beer can. But I digress, they are pretty cool none-the-less.

The tribute to ‘The King’ has limited distribution and will only be sold in Hawai’i. Pick these up now while they’re available and save yourself a can or two. Who knows, these may become valuable collector items one day in the surf world.

After reading another interview with Kelly Slater it has almost become comical how similar each one starts off. Some form of “Will you be at the next event?” has been the lead-off question for each one and I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point where we just stop asking.

Finding out information this crucial is the obvious job of the press, but to what end? This question has been posed to Slater over and over and over again for years now and I have yet to see an interview where he provides an answer that brings any sort of clarity to the situation. His state of mind is admittedly perfect for where he is at in his career right now and his results at Snapper and Bell’s demonstrate just that.

I’m sure this will continue being the question-du-jour with each interview. Slater is obviously an enormous part of what makes the surfing-world go round and each sponsor for every event is praying that he shows up. As it continues to be the first thing that comes from each interviewers mouth we can look forward to more vague, nondescript answers from ‘The King’ time and time again.

Will he show up? Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. When you’re Kelly Slater, you can pretty much do what you want.

After the first two events (Snapper Rocks and Bells) of the 2008 ASP World Tour, the top twelve are as follows -

1. Kelly Slater (USA)- 2400 pts.
2. Bede Durbidge (AUS)- 1908 pts.
3. Mick Fanning (AUS)- 1764 pts.
4. Taj Burrow (AUS)- 1476 pts.
4. Jeremy Flores (FRA)- 1476 pts.
6. Andy Irons (HAW)- 1464 pts.
6. Joel Parkinson (AUS)- 1464 pts.
8. Bobby Martinez (USA)- 1286 pts.
9. Kai Otton (AUS)- 1200 pts.
9. Adriano de Souza (BRA)- 1200 pts.
11. Adrian Buchan (AUS)- 1142 pts.
11. Dane Reynolds (USA)- 1142 pts.

Not a whole lot of surprises so far. The “Usual Suspects” are all in solid positions It’s good to see Dane up near the top after a couple of events. I thought his surfing exceeded everyone else’s at Bells and was just hit with bad luck against Taj in the quarters. Goofy’s like Bobby Martinez and “Ace” Buchan have to be pumped on flipping things around on Teahupoo’s left, especially the defending champ Martinez. Speaking of Teahupoo, Kelly Slater is going to have a tough time fooling anyone into thinking that there is even the slightest chance he won’t be there. I still think he will end up skipping a couple of events this year, this just won’t be one of them.

Two WCT events. Two finals appearances. Two risky, unconventional moves. Two victories.

The legacy that Kelly Slater will leave behind once he does actually decided to hang it up for good, only continues to grow. Many may wonder if it is actually possible for someone who has dominated his sport the way Slater has for so many years to continue expanding on his legendary status. It is possible, and the first two events of 2008 have shown us why.

It’s not just that Kelly is winning. He ’s been doing that for many many years against a countless number of cdifferent ompetitors who line themselves up and give him their best shot. This year it’s the way that he is winning these events that is simply just mind-blowing.

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Kelly Slater has done it…. again! By taking a big risk in the final and making the paddle a few hundred yards down the beach to Rincon he showed us once again why he is “The King.” Boosting a huge air with just minutes left in the heat, Kelly got the score he was chasing the entire heat. Bede Durbidge surfed as well as you could expect leading pretty much the entire heat, but Slater just wouldn’t be denied.

Congratulations Kelly Slater on winning the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach! We look forward to watching you in Tahiti.