Day 1
The Box freesurf
Day 3
Day 4
Apparently, 45 is the new 25. In the world of professional surfing it seems almost inconceivable that someone who won the Telstar Drug Aware Pro in the mid 80s could be lining up in the quarterfinals of the 2012 event. Mark Occhilupo who has won twice here at Margaret River, (1985 and again in 2005) has done just that.
"I'm nearly 46," said Occhilupo after defeating his close mate and fellow goofy-footer Fred Patacchia in a closely fought round of 16 late this afternoon, "It's so good pulling on a jersey again, especially when you are getting through heats!"
Occhilupo wasn't going to come to Western Australia for the event because he was on standby for the Billabong Challenge in Mundaka, Spain. Originally he was asked to come and commentate the Telstar Drug Aware with other former world champions, Martin Potter and Tom Carroll. He kept declining until the event organizer offered him Kelly Slater's wildcard entry after Slater entered the contest.
"When they finally offered me the wildcard I said, 'OK, I'm coming,' and I'm so glad I did because I'm now in the quarter finals and I haven't had to do that much commentating," he said with a laugh.
While Occhilupo is having a fairy tale run through the event, the man whose wildcard spot he took was bundled out today by former world tour surfer Tom Whitaker. Slater later noted he had thought the surf would have been bigger today and maybe that affected his performance. He started the heat with an 8.23-point barrel on the right hander but then seemed to have trouble with wave choice and finding sections to hit.
Whitaker and Slater both rode their final waves in the last minutes of the heat and if you were going by body language, Slater thought he had won. Whitaker needed a 7.87 to win and the judges gave him a score of 7.97. Slater was back on the beach, walking through the crowd threw his head back in frustration before regaining composure and signing autographs for the huge number of fans assembled on the cliffs.
While two professional surfers in their 40's, Slater and Occhilupo, were the talk of the contest, two of the youngest, close friends Kolohe Andino (who turned 20 years March 22) and John John Florence, 19 years were having their own little battle for bragging rights.
The pair met in the second heat of the day with Andino winning the three man 'no looser' round of 24 heat; Florence came in second and former event winner Adam Melling finishing third.
Florence defeated last week's winner of the Newcastle event, Brazil's William Cardoso, before coming in for a rematch in the round of 16.
"Thanks for coming," said the beach commentators when Florence produced a massive grab rail, air-reverse into the strong sideshore wind, followed by a close-out lip smash. The judges loved it, throwing down the contest's first perfect 10-point wave. Earlier, Florence had said he was excited and nervous to be surfing against his good friend again.
"He's a friend of mine and he surfs so good and I'm pretty nervous going into another heat with him. It will be crazy but it should be fun."
It was Andino who showed the nerves in the heat and spent a good part of it trying to break a two wave combination that Florence had set up with the 10-point ride and a second score of 9.70, finishing with the highest heat score of the whole event.
Florence's efforts overshadowed earlier efforts of former winner Josh Kerr. Kerr had ridden barrels to victory in the morning and gone to the air to win in the afternoon, all on a stock surfboard he picked up from the local Rusty factory just a few days ago. Kerr had just gone to the stock surfboard rack to choose his Margaret River quiver of a 6'0" and a 5'10".
When asked about his boards he just laughed and said, "Yeah, I reckon it's a pretty good endorsement for Rusty's boards. I just went through the rack and picked a couple out. I hadn't ridden them until my first heat and I reckon they go pretty well."
CJ Hobgood defeated Keiren Perrow to prove he's still a force at any venue and Hawai's Ola Eleogram got a surpirse victory over Owen Wright to face Kerr in the quarters. After days of good waves, both the Men and Women's events are ahead of schedule and down to the quarterfinals. With a predicted drop in swell there is a very good chance the contest will wrap up tomorrow, a day earlier than planned. With Occhilupo and Florence on either side of the men's draw, the only place they can meet is in the final so could we see another day for the ages.
UPCOMING TELSTRA DRUG AWARE PRO MEN'S QUARTERFINALS:
QF 1: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Olamana Eleogram (HAW)
QF 2: Mark Occhilupo (AUS) vs. Tom Whitaker (AUS)
QF 3: Nic Muscroft (AUS) vs. John John Florence (HAW)
QF 4: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. CJ Hobgood (USA)
TELSTRA DRUG AWARE PRO MEN'S ROUND OF 12 RESULTS:
HEAT 1: Josh Kerr (AUS) 17.00 def. Dion Atkinson (AUS) 12.60
HEAT 2: Olamana Eleogram (HAW) 13.16 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 9.23
HEAT 3: Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 13.17 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 13.00
HEAT 4: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 16.10 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.76
HEAT 5: Nic Muscroft 13.60 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 12.60
HEAT 6: John John Florence (HAW) 19.70 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 11.17
HEAT 7: Kai Otton (AUS) 15.14 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.77
HEAT 8: CJ Hobgood (USA) 13.84 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 8.73
TELSTRA DRUG AWARE PRO MEN'S ROUND OF 24 RESULTS:
HEAT 1: Josh Kerr (AUS) 18.66 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.90
HEAT 2: Owen Wright (AUS) 13.13 def. Gabe Kling (USA) 9.47
HEAT 3: Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 16.60 def. Blake Thornton (AUS) 12.50
HEAT 4: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 16.67 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 16.56
HEAT 5: Adam Melling (AUS) 16.20 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 7.74
HEAT 6: John John Florence (HAW) 16.80 def. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 13.33
HEAT 7: Kai Otton (AUS) 14.13 def. Brian Toth (PRI) 10.63
HEAT 8: CJ Hobgood (USA) 17.60 def. Lincoln Taylor (AUS) 12.84