Mick Fanning wins the 2015 Hurley Lowers Pro!

Words by Damien Farhenfort 

Mick Fanning wins the Hurley Lowers Pro! Over Jeep leader Adriano De Souza 17.44 to 16.44. Another event above the cobblestones has come to a close. The women got the best waves of the event and as perpetually outraged the vast majority seems over it, it really wasn’t much of surprise. Something I’ve come to expect in recent years at Lowers. The final day ended with slow, waist high-plus waves which seemed a bit lackluster in comparison to the swell that hit in the beginning of the window. Now here’s five observations from final day down at Trestles.

Lower perfection for Caroline Marks. Photo: WSL/Kirstin Scholtz

The girls should not have been in the same waiting period. 
Predicting surf in California can be tough and unfortunately Surfline had a bit of shocker this time around. Today was meant to be the peak of the swell but ended up being one of the worst days since they had put it on hold. Whenever there’s a strong onshore wind the day before at Lowers it messes the whole lineup up causing peaky flat walls the next day. Another reason to not stick the men and women together when you have a limited time and rules for the waiting period. The girls surfed the best Lowers I’ve ever seen this year, and had better waves than the men again. If they had run the men straight through it would have been finished last weekend when the waves were the best.

It’s all about the hustle. 
Nat Young should have not got an interference on Gabs. From this side of the computer screen it looked like a bit of a dive and if anyone is known for some foul play it’s Gabs, so it leaves me wondering. They then punished Gabs in the semi’s by underscoring him a fair bit. Needless to say Gab’s is back and he’s going to go mad in France.

Are the judges high, again?
The way they scoring Adriano for basic surfing is getting a bit stupid. I’m admittedly a big fan of his but the surfing he did on the last day resembled the 14 and under division at NSSA. Two stage snaps and cut backs. Everything looked forced and slow compared to Filipe and Mick. Sure his waves were better but as Pottz said “A little bit horizontal for my liking.” I thought surfing had moved past judging wave height. In the second semi it happened again when Mick and Gabs squared off. Mick was the ultimate winner there but the heat should have been a lot closer.

Everybody dance now! Filipe kicks to the beat of progression. Photo: WSL/Brett Skinner

From zer0.0 to her0.0
Some redemption for Filipe and mainly I was hoping he would win so I could use the title Filipe Toled0.0 from Zer0.0 to Her0.0. Sure he wasn’t surfing big heavy waves but there were a lot of doubters including myself that he would be good when the swell was up a bit. His turns looked powerful and his carves were long. He held his rail all the way through turns which starts to show some maturity in his surfing. Now all he has to do is hope the wind is funky going into Europe so he can spin higher and more tweaked out than the past few years.

Mick Fanning will win the title this year. 
And deservingly so, the guy get’s attacked by a shark and brought more attention and eyeballs to surfing ever before. He’s the perfect man to carry the torch from Slater and is our new Jeep leader. Mick looked about two clicks faster than anyone this event and although it’s similar surfing to what we’re used to from Mick it’s just too good and exciting to dismiss. Go Mick, save surfing one last time…

Final’s day results:
Final
Mick Fanning 17.44, Adriano de Souza 16.44

Semi’s
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza 15.46, Filipe Toledo 15.27
Heat 2: Mick Fanning 18.17, Gabs Medina 17.54

Quarters
Heat 1: Filipe Toledo 16.66, Joel Parkinson 8.90
Heat 2: Adriano de Souza 12.67, Wiggolly Dantas 8.83
Heat 3: Mick Fanning 15.13, Ace Buchan 7.50
Heat 4: Gabriel Medina 11.34, Nat Young 9.44