May I start with wow what an event? The Quiksilver pro France was insane this year!
The Asp Quiksilver Pro France is stop number 8 of 10 on the world tour and the first in the European leg of the tour. It did not disappoint at all.
In round 3 we lost some of the best surfers. 3x event winner Mich Fanning went out to Captain America Taylor Knox . Mr Constancy Bede Durbridge went out to the high flying ex king of the groms Gabriel Medina. Dane Reynolds lost out to Jordy Smith but once by a few points. Poor old Jeremy Flores was ripping and boosted one too many against Kia Otton and hurt is ankle ruling him out for the rest of the event.
Round 4 we return to the 3 man heats where we saw Kelly get over scored with an 8. 23 for a floater and two turns. I say this because Medina took the same wave and went left and did two airs and a turn and got a similar score. Luckily for Gabriel he had a walk through to the quarter finals because of Jeremy’s injury. Taj was on fire in this round scoring the biggest score of the round with a combo of 17.43 and boosting the only 9 of the round.
Round 5 saw the veteran Taylor Knox once again progress through to the semi finals after a closely fought heat with Ace Buchan. Jordy Smith showed the young Australian Owen Wright why he finished second last year. He showed off his power turns and popped a few cheeky airs as well.
Julian Wilson started to get ampped up in this round after taking out Damien Hobgood he was into the quarter’s and could almost touch the final. Wilson has such a competitive nature in him you can see it in his surfing he just wants the win at any cost.
The Quarter Finals.. This is when you could clearly see how much the young guys on tour wanted this win. It was time to prove to everyone they are not groms anymore.
Gabriel Medina rocked Kelly Slater with an impressive 9.33 and 7.33 to secure the victory and move through to the finals.
Another unexpected victory came from Taylor Knox who beat the Spartan Michel Bourez in impressive style to get into his first semi final for quite some time. He showed everyone he may well be the oldest man on tour at 40 but he has still got it!
Julian Wilson showed Taj Burrow how aerials and power hacks are done. Julian tore Taj apart with wave after wave and a cheeky fist pump every time he nailed a nice wave. At this point I think everyone thought after missing out in the semis at Trestles it was Wilson’s time to shine.
The only man standing in Julian’s way was the young South African Jordy Smith. Jordy has shown great form in this event. He continued that with a fairly routine win over the young Brazilian Alejo Muniz.
So to the semis.
For me these two heats will change the future of surfing forever. The judges must have aged about 10 years in these two exciting heats. The surfing that Medina and Wilson were doing was like watching a free surf video. Huge airs and massive turns.
Gabriel Medina had the first heat against Taylor Knox where he was unstoppable I mean the young Brazilian did a massive air reverse with a lay back landing! Have you ever seen one of them before, I know I most definitely have not! Medina scored the highest heat total of the whole event with a perfect 10 and a 9.57.
Medina Airlines
Next up was Julian Wilson Vs Jordy Smith. This was a very very good heat as well. More airs and spray then you can imagine. Julian showed the world how much he has improved over the year with an impressive 18.50 against arguably one of the most power full surfers on tour.
The Final was amazing. 23 year old Australian Julian Wilson took on 17 year old Brazilian Gabriel Medina. Up until about half way through the heat it looked like Wilson had it in the bag. By the 26th minute Wilson had his 16.10 with a 7.6 and a 8.5. Medina was only on 11.76 so he needed a good score in the last 5 minutes. There looked like there may have been a interference in the last 5 minutes but none was given. 2 minutes later Medina took a beautiful left to score a 9.2. But the score was not known until about 5 minutes after the heat finished with both surfer’s waiting it out in the water to find out who the winner was. Then it was announced that Medina had one and the crowd went nuts.
After his maiden victory in only his second event he said : “This is the best feeling ever,” Medina said. “I beat some great guys on the way to Final and I’m very stoked now. I want to thank all my friends and family and god for their support. It has been an amazing week for me. Just two years ago, I was here competing in the King of the Groms and I won that event and now I’m here in the main event and I’ve won it. It doesn’t seem real.” He then continued “The start of the heat was slow and it was going high tide so it was a challenge,” Medina said. “It was a fun heat. It was a hard hat as well. Julian (Wilson) is an incredible surfer and I know he wanted to win very badly. I knew I needed a big score on that final wave and I had to throw everything I had to get it. I’m very happy right now.”
Highlights from the Quiksilver Pro France will be available via http://www.quiksilverlive.com
The next stop on the 2011 ASP World Title season will be the Rip Curl Pro Portugal from October 15 – 24, 2011.
For additional information log on to www.aspworldtour.com
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.00
2 – Julian Wilson (AUS) 16.10
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 19.57 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 7.00
SF 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 18.50 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.55
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Taylor Knox (USA) 15.17 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 9.50
QF 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.66 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 8.60
QF 3: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.26 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 13.77
QF 4: Julian Wilson (AUS) 13.00 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 3.54
ASP WORLD TITLE TOP 5 (After Completion of Quiksilver Pro France):
1. Kelly Slater (USA) 50,150 pts
2. Owen Wright (AUS) 43,900 pts
3. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 35,900 pts
4. Taj Burrow (AUS) 34,450 pts
5. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 34,000 pts
