7 Observations from day four of the 2015 Fiji Pro

Well, that escalated quickly. The three most important things to happen at Cloudbreak today were that Kelly Slater was eliminated, Joel Parkinson got a 10 and Owen Wright clocked a perfect 20-point heat total (only the seventh perfect heat ever). Owen and Joel’s waves are rich with replay value, so we’ll let you enjoy that above and below. As well as some observations from South African lover/hater of the world tour, Dooma Fahrenfort…

Words by Damien Fahrenfort

Owen Wilson, hey.
Holy shit that was amazing, and probably not many surfers more deserving of the perfect heat than Owen Wright. Owen goes as hard as anyone, and he’s not often rewarded results-wise, so let’s hope he wins this thing to top it all off. And, some of those turns on the 8.77…

Italo 2, Kelly 0.
Your results are an indication of your choices – some deep but true shit from the king, but No! How did you let that happen Kelly? You’re the wave God and you just handed it to Italo on a platter. The wave he did one big turn on and then kicked out of, would’ve been the score had he just done another turn or finished the wave. It just seemed like he wasn’t 100 percent committed while Italo was doing Hail Mary floaters and going for it. Italo is the real deal and we’re probably looking at the Rookie of The Year.

Dane’s making smart choices.
Even though he lost in Round Five, Dane surfed great this event – but I still don’t think we saw him get the opportunities to really open up. On the positive though, he looked like he was making smarter choices in heats and surfing well and for the score. If he gets the wildcard into J-Bay, who knows what we’ll see and let’s hope he gets enough points to qualify this year.

Ottz beats Gabs and Mick.
Ah Gabs, what’s going on with you this year? It’s been one good heat and then out, which has been consistent through almost every event this year. It seems like he’s lost his edge or maybe he’s content with one title, but I don’t think that’s the case because he looked pissed off when he lost… but maybe that was from Ottz knocking him off the wave they rode together after the horn. Ottz has been surfing well and I also think his 8.00 with the roll in against Mick might’ve been as good as Owen’s first 10, to be honest.

Bede, you idiot.
Bede had been surfing really well this whole event, so to go down on a priority mistake is a serious wasted opportunity. Not that beating Flores would have been easy but to cross the path of the surfer with priority is a shocker. The priority penalty I think needs to be revisited. To take one whole wave away is a bit extreme. This rule could work when it was three scoring rides, but now that it’s two, it becomes impossible.

JS obviously makes the best boards for Fiji.
Am I right? Jeremy, Joel, Owen and Julian were going mad on them today and getting the highest scores. Jeremy is doing some of the best surfing I’ve seen him do; His turns are sharp and he’s surfing as good as ever.

Negatron
I’d like to welcome you back to the comments platform. Apparently you were missed. Not by many, though.

Oh, and: Here’s Joel Parkinson’s 10, just in case for some weird reason you missed it:

Fiji Pro Remaining Round 3 Results:
Heat 7: Mick Fanning (AUS) 13.67 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 13.30
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) def. Sebastian Zietz (HAW)
Heat 9: Owen Wright (AUS) def. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 10: Kai Otton (AUS) 14.97 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 13.77
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 10.60 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 4.50
Heat 12: Adam Melling (AUS) 11.66 def. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 10.97

Fiji Pro Round 4 Results:
Heat 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) 19.43, Kelly Slater (USA) 14.34, Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.83
Heat 2: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 11.30, Dane Reynolds (USA) 10.77, Italo Ferreira (BRA) 10.67
Heat 3: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.93, Owen Wright (AUS) 17.26, Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.60
Heat 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 18.70, Kai Otton (AUS) 12.10, Adam Melling (AUS) 5.83

Fiji Pro Round 5 Results:
Heat 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 10.97 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 7.34
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.24 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.66
Heat 3: Owen Wright (AUS) 20.00 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 17.70
Heat 4: Kai Otton (AUS) 14.33 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.33

Fiji Pro Quarterfinal Match-Ups:
QF 1: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Italo Ferreira (BRA)
QF 2: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) vs. Taj Burrow (AUS)
QF 3: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Owen Wright (AUS)
QF 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)

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