Owen Wright, La Graviere, France

Owen Wright didn’t surf like Owen Wright at the Quiksilver Pro, France today. The possibility of a fourth consecutive final between Kelly Slater and the 21-year-old disappeared after Owen slipped in both rounds four and five. The bumps of a French beachie can be your best pal or a set of nightmarish hurdles, depending on your flow. Today, La Grav was the latter for Owen. His surfing in rounds four and five was focused around aerials, with most turns placed as set-ups for ramps. Collectively, Owen landed three outta nine airs and, though we’re not usually prone to scrutiny of such things, it’s worth noting from the kid who always seems so in-control of his flare and usually won’t launch unless he’s fairly certain of what the outcome’ll be. Owen’s round four heat against Taj Burrow and Damo Hobgood was dominated by Taj, who nailed an 8.43 and a 9. After slamming on his first two air attempts, Owen eventually landed the doozy y’see pictured here, which scooped him a 6.93. But that’s as fruitful as it got. Round five against Jordy Smith had Owen even less in-control, which is easy to understand – one minute in, a very-relaxed Jordy stomped a backside air revs for a 7.67, then backed-up immediately with a 7.07 leaving Owen combo’d four and a half minutes in. This wouldn’t usually be a problem for the Australian and, after three failed air attempts he managed to put down a steezed-out slob for a 5.83. Needing an 8.91, (totally attainable for someone like Owen), he blasted another air that woulda been the day’s highlight if landed. But it wasn’t landed and Owen only posted a 4.70 for his second scoring wave. So what does this mean? Nothing, really. Owen ain’t cracked, he’s just a sophomore tour surfer who’s feeling the exhaustion of three consecutive finals and had an off-day on a difficult beachie. He’s still in the title race, still excited everyone on the beach and webcast today and still has three events left to scoop points. The only man who really stands in his way now, is Kelly Slater. For more of Ryan Miller’s awesome work, jump over to his site, here.