Kelly Slater makes a loss look good, Snapper Rocks

In the third heat of the 2015 Quiksilver Pro, Gold Coast’s first round yesterday, Kelly Slater lost to Freddy Patacchia. While conditions were as dream scene as you could picture (water and sky two shades of warm blue), the waves themselves were smallish, with the odd punch in a connecting section. Freddy picked off the biggest waves of the heat, winding up vertically into the lip all the way down the bank. Kelly mixed it up, opening with a carving 360 on his first wave, finding a small barrel, and injecting the rest of the heat with a flurry of quick pocket wraps and, as we see here, a little work above the lip. This air was on Kelly’s fourth wave, and was the only thing he did on that wave. It netted him a 5.10 – not one of his scoring rides – but it was a good moment, and exciting in a round that certainly didn’t favour jumps. Freddy’s 17.06 combined total wasn’t one that Kelly could catch in the end, and now Mr Slater heads to round two face trials winner Jack Freestone.