Kelly Slater, Cloudbreak, Fiji

This is the reason Kelly Slater missed his first round heat at the Billabong Pro, Jeffreys Bay in South Africa. The 10-time world champ’s been Tweeting like mad about skipping out on the J-Bay contest ’cause he’s sick of missing good swells to compete in poor ones. Cloudbreak, Fiji has been hammered by some of the best swell the island of Tavarua’s seen in a long time, and any big-wave dude worth his salt has been all over it. Thanks to said swell, yesterday Kell missed his first round match-up against Brazilian Alejo Muniz (who won the heat) and local wildcard Shaun Payne. As we said yesterday, our prediction is that the king will waltz in late to the repercharge round and make at least a semis-berth. Though, if the Fiji swell don’t dissipate, that could be wildly incorrect.