RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Slater verse Owen final ... again.

That surely has never happened before, huh? Same two guys in three consecutive finals?

What he fkuc, how was Kellys last wave a 9?

Braithy wrote:Slater verse Owen final ... again.

That surely has never happened before, huh? Same two guys in three consecutive finals?

Not in the post-'91 era.

AI and KS went two in a row a couple of times but no triple header.

Fuck I should have gone to Lowers, nobody's writing anything good from there, the webcasts are fun but I hate not being given the picture behind the picture, especially at times when guys are rising to challenges the way both K and O are doing.

Nick Carroll wrote:

Braithy wrote:Slater verse Owen final ... again.

That surely has never happened before, huh? Same two guys in three consecutive finals?

Not in the post-'91 era.

AI and KS went two in a row a couple of times but no triple header.

**** I should have gone to Lowers, nobody's writing anything good from there, the webcasts are fun but I hate not being given the picture behind the picture, especially at times when guys are rising to challenges the way both K and O are doing.

As a viewer, the whole event has been covered like it's an afterthought. You have to really search the net for any info ... and even then there's not much out there. Media coverage of the ASP. Who is the onus on? In this case, Hurley the sponsor, or the ASP, or the media outlets like emap and MM?

It's an amazing contrast to NYC and Teahupo'o where every time a competitor farted, we knew about it.

Kelly and O would have one helluva subplot happening right now, but we don't know what it is!!

Question is now, is Owen the only one who can now deny KS World Title #11?

Donweather wrote:Question is now, is Owen the only one who can now deny KS World Title #11?

Yes.

From the little bits I've seen it's Kelly and O, then alotta daylight to the Micks & Joels & Jordys.

Kerr has been outsurfing Mick and Joel, imo.

NC I would love to hear your take on that final.

Yes KS put some heat into those turns on his final wave but it was the same 2 turns followed by a few smaller turns. OW popped an air grab, into fins flare near 360, into solid cut back. Wasn't OW showing more diversity and still pushing each of his manoeuvres to the max??

I'm just not convinced KS deserved the score.

^^^Yeah, once again a bit hard to tell on a webcast, the view is stilted and you don't get the perspective afforded to the judges.

It was bloody close, I'd give the panel the benefit of the doubt, both surfers' judgement of the situation in the dying minutes was impeccable and either could have won.

Kelly will hug that win close for a little while though, he's got a hell of an opponent there in O right now and he would not have liked giving any more ground there at Lowers... a win the other way would have almost evened up the title race and would have been a big momentum push for the super giant grommet. (Imagine back to back wins over KS on US coastlines.)

Waves in the final were a bit disappointing though.

Slater is the best competitive surfer, ever, obviously, but I also reckon he is the surfer most regularly overscored of any surfer on tour. An 8 by anyone else is a 9 if done by Slater. So many tight heats he should have lost, or could have lost, are pulled out of the bag in part by overscoring.

Just my thoughts.

Having said that he's been the most consistent surfer this year. Owen and Julian are up there too (Julian's heat scores are consistently high and he's just losing a lot of tight contests). I love Parko's surfing...I'd prefer to watch him surf over any surfer on the planet...but in a contest environment he and Mick seem to need to pick up the aerial game a bit.

NC, whats ya thoughts on the JW-Owen interference ? I thought they both were looking like going right, and JW had the inside, but Owen changed his line and went left, pretty hard one when its a peak like ... KS first turn on his last waves was great but didnt think he got the score myself but then again I thought the whole final was a touch overscored...quite a bit of inconsistency from heat to heat but thats the same at evry comp I guess...still enjoyed watching it for sure...shame it wasnt a touch bigger and more waves in the heats....but it is showing the 2 guys that are at the top atm especially with the varied conditions in the last 3 events....

Watching Owen's 8.8 or whatever and then Slater's next wave you're thinking Slater's wave is around a 7.5, but then he gets a 9! It's a bit of a joke actually.

i dunno, Kelly's first turn was the sort of stuff that Dane gets thrown 9s for without any other turns.
Owen's may well have been more difficult, but for mine Kelly's looked better. Bigger wave too, or that could just have been the difference in stature...

The Julian /Owen interference call was a joke.

If that happened in the NRL the Ref would be playing reserve grade next year.

There needs to be an oversight panel for calls like that, which basically ruined the whole contest.

This whole Slater over-score fantasy is a bit of a furphy from my observations. Slater's turns were on another level for the event, mostly set-up by a deep driving bottom turn that somehow seemed to make lower Trestles mushburgers look like Sunset beach.

And Slater gave Owen that last wave.

He had the confidence to say: here you go, show your best. I'm on the next wave and I'm confident enough with the Final on the line to give the judges my wave as the exclamation mark on this heat.

Which he subsequently did.

And it was that first turn, fully committed to under maximum pressure which convinced the judges.

You can't remove a wave and it's performance from the context of the heat.
That is one of the most important aspects of the genius of Slater.

Hard to understand why in the heart of So.Cal that they couldn't seem to find any journos to cover the event.........

No-one reads or writes there anymore?

And I may have been imagining things but I'm sure that in the post-final frenzy Owen gave Kelly a hug and the audio though faint was distinct: "I love you Kelly".

If so, that may have been a masterstroke, a sort of post-loss victory in terms of the greater psychological battle that is being waged between the two.

A greater psychological battle between Slater and Wright sounds alright, I'll be trying to stay tuned in for that.

It may turn out to be a sort of Nietszchean paso doble in the final analysis.

Want me to explain that one Kreepy?

where does nietzsche write about the paso doble?