Gabe Kling, Trestles carpark

In his award acceptance speech, Kelly Slater thanked Rob Machado and Pat O’Connell for the inspired measures they’d come up with to look after surfers at the event. Among the innovations cited by the champ was the valet parking idea. “In the past we’d get here and they’d be like, ‘Sorry carpark full.’ And we’d be like, but I’ve gotta surf a heat.” For this event, not only were surfers given special parking, the spots were allocated according to their ranking on the tour. Right next to the trail down to Lowers was Jordy’s brown 4×4. Next to that, the heavily tinted windows of Kelly’s black 4×4. And, like, a hundred meters further down was world number 35, Gabe Kling. He told Stab he wasn’t offended and also that the extra meters he covered in the lead up to his loss to Slater the morning this was taken were unlikely to have affected his performance. – Jed Smith