Kelly Slater, Tahiti

While it didn’t provide a canvas befitting of the world’s best surfers, the Billabong Pro, Tahiti still offered up one of the year’s highlights. Kelly’s no hands, off-balance drop in which he avoided the descending lip by centimeters before navigating a lengthy tube on what was one of the day’s biggest waves will go down as a hallmark moment in the history of the event. Which means the champ can now lay claim to two of Tahiti’s most prized memories – the other, a perfect 20 out of 20 in 2004, in which he displayed a similar dexterity for the pit.