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Kelly Slater, a parting gift to Peniche, Portugal

Did Kelly Slater really lose in round three? Did he really not ride outta the backside hit you see pictured here, and not get a heat total higher than 5.27? He really didn’t. Raoni Monteiro, the man who took the hero award in Fiji, beat the 11-time world champ and is now into round five, where he’ll face Jeremy Flores for a shot at the last quarters slot.

“You take off, you think you’ve got one easy and all of a sudden the bottom sucks out and you get pitched,” said Kelly, who was even struggling to make takeoffs on some waves (an extremely rare site). “I was surprised I didn’t break my board on about three of those. And I got drilled into the sand a coupla times, I just got lit up, my suit was just full of kelp and sand when I came in. Yeah, it was frustrating… that might have been the most frustrating heat I’ve ever had on tour.” It may’ve been messy, but at least it was fair!

Photo courtesy Rip Curl