Can y’believe it? Owen Wright, the 21-year-old from Lennox Heads, just beat Kelly Slater, 39 years old and 10 times world champ, in the final of the Quiksilver Pro, New York. It was the Chopes final over again, in some very different conditions, and this time it was Owen who came out on top. Dude’s just nailed his two career-best results in as many events (second at Chopes and now first in NY). Long Beach turned it on for finals day, with offshore, shoulder-height lefts and rights, sometimes hollow, sometimes rampy, sometimes both. Some incredible airs were thrown down (Josh Kerr’s full roter, then Kelly’s even better one with a slob-tap midway through). Owen was on it from first siren of the final. Within five minutes he had Kelly combo’d with a 7.00 and a 9.23. Kelly clawed his way back somewhat with an 8.00 and a 6.53, but Owen’s reaffirmation to the tune of 8.60, then 8.67 were the nails in Kell’s quad. Kid just earned himself $300k, thanks. Pretty slick for a few days’ shredding, a train ride away from the Big Apple. How’s the world title race looking now, d’ya reckon?
