Kelly Slater Goes down in round 3!

With perfect left hand indo barrels, the worlds top 4 surfers have steped up to the plate at this years Rip Curl Pro Search. This year the boys and girls at Rip Curl have taken us to `Somewhere in Indo` and so far it has been a hell of a show.
Today`s huge upset came in the form of 8x world champ, Kelly Slater losing in round 3 to avery inform Tiago Pires. While Kelly was running the heat from the start, Putting Tiago in a combo situation (16+ point score ), Tiago was not to be underestimated. Pires has shown throughout this year that he is deadly on any hollow left, and he proved it yet again today, taking the heat from Slater in the final minute, with a sick pit that scored him an 8+ ride and a ticket into round 4.


With Slater out early, the door has been cracked open a few inches on what has so far been a runaway title race.
After seeing Kelly`s little switch foot bottom turn/stall tube ride in round 1, I thought, jeez this is the year, Kelly is going to actually win a Search event. I also thought, WTF, did that sell his soul to huey or what!


The roll has stopped, possibly only briefly, but perhaps enought to get guys like Bede, Joel, And, Taj and Mick Fired up enough to put a little race in the case for the ASP 2008 title!



RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 3 RESULTS
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 10.84 def. Daniel Wills (AUS) 9.77
Heat 2: Kai Otton (AUS) 17.50 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.83
Heat 3: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 6.86 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 4.90
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.40 def. Royden Bryson (ZAF) 11.43
Heat 5: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 13.17 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 12.64
Heat 6: Bobby Martinez (USA) 15.43 def. Michael Campbell (AUS) 14.40
Heat 7: Dayyan Neve (AUS) 17.43 def. Tim Reyes (USA) 11.83
Heat 8: Tiago Pires (PRT) 17.57 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 16.33
Heat 9: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.34 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 3.90
Heat 10: Bruce Irons (HAW) 15.50 def. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 6.24
Heat 11: Mikael Picon (FRA) 14.00 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 5.67
Heat 12: Ben Dunn (AUS) 14.43 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.17
Heat 13: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.30 def. Ben Bourgeois (USA) 8.43
Heat 14: Dean Morrison (AUS) 10.10 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 9.60
Heat 15: Andy Irons (HAW) 17.33 def. Neco Padaratz (BRA) 9.34
Heat 16: Chris Ward (USA) 14.84 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 8.67

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 4 MATCH-UPS
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 2: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
Heat 3: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. Bobby Martinez (USA)
Heat 4: Dayyan Neve (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 5: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Bruce Irons (HAW)
Heat 6: Mikael Picon (FRA) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 7: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Dean Morrison (AUS)
Heat 8: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Chris Ward (USA)