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23/02/2008:// Australian Luke Munro may not be the most prominent of the local surfers competing in the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast but he did take centre stage on the opening day of 2008 ASP World Tour competition at Duranbah Beach.
Munro scored the highest wave (9.50 out of 10.00) and heat total (17.50 out of 20.00) of the round to take out ASP World Tour rookie Dane Reynolds and Damien Hobgood in three foot waves at the Snapper Rocks back-up venue.
“I don’t mind a bit of a gamble and today was no different,” Munro said. “I had to sit out there and watch Dane try and get a score and all I could see was fins coming out of the back. It’s pretty scary what he can do on a wave so I guess that inspired me to go a little further than I normally would.”
Munro is now through to Round Three – a round he only made it out of one time during his rookie year season in 2007.
He finished the year 41st out of the Top 45 and requalified via the ASP’s World Qualifying Series.
“Last year for me was really a rough year on the tour,” Munro said. “It was my rookie season and my seed meant I was going against guys like Kelly (Slater), Joel (Parkinson), and Taj (Burrow) every first and second round, so the start of this year is crucial for me to do well and make sure I skip coming up against the guys in the top five; that way I can really make inroads into the top 10, which is where I’m aiming to be.”
Reigning ASP and Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast champion Mick Fanning and fellow “Coolangatta Kids” Joel Parkinson and Dean Morrison also advanced through their opening-season heats with ease. All three are past winners of the event but Fanning has won the event twice, in 2005 and 2007.
“We’re all really lucky we get to surf here all the time and it’s just good to start off the year with a win,” Fanning said. “If you get a good start then it takes the pressure off and your confidence level goes up. Last year I wanted to get a really good start and it helped out towards the end of the year that I had this one win under my belt.”
With a new year and a host of hungry competitors eager to overtake him, Fanning plans to again take his title defense campaign one heat at a time.
“Everyone starts at zero and I have to get through heats to hold onto the world title, so I’m just concentrating on that,” Fanning said. “I was excited to get out there today and start surfing heats again, I haven’t surfed a heat since Pipeline so I was a little bit nervous. I’m just glad to get through that first heat.”
Bede Durbidge ended his 2007 ASP World Tour campaign with a win in Hawaii and has started his 2008 season just as emphatically.
Durbidge finished runner-up to Fanning at Snapper Rocks last year, and ended the season ranked 5th in the world. He also resides on the Gold Coast of Australia.
“It’s such an important event for me as well as everyone else,” Durbidge said. “It’s the first event of the year and everyone wants to start off with a bang and get the ball rolling to carry that momentum through the year. I had a good start last year when I finished second and it’s only early days, but it would be good to go that bit better.”
Eight-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast in 2006. He won his Round 1 heat over Brazilian Rodrigo Dornelles and Tahitian wildcard Michel Bourez in the dying seconds of his heat.
“I don’t like to be behind with 30 seconds to go looking for a wave,” Slater said. “It didn’t look like there were anymore waves coming, but I paddled back out and popped over a little one and there was the wave I needed. I pushed really hard to throw some spray because the wave didn’t look like it had much in it.”
Slater earned a mid-range score that was just enough to see him advance over Dornelles and Bourez – the wildcard who eliminated him in France last year.
“He pretty much knocked me out of a legitimate shot at the title,” Slater said. “I was just getting some momentum with a 2nd place at J-Bay and a 1st at Trestles, the only two events I finished ahead of Mick (Fanning) all year, and then I made that slip up against Michel; broke a board and didn’t have the extra one on the beach. That pretty much meant the end of my year.”
Returning Frenchman Miky Picon, one of a record four Europeans on the 2008 ASP World Tour, sent 3-times ASP Champion Andy Irons to Round Two.
“It was a good heat and I’m happy to get through,” Picon said. “I have a really bad seeding at the moment so I really need to get some results early on and make sure I don’t come up against guys like Andy all the time.”
Pattachia, who was also slated to surf in Heat 5 with Picon and Irons opted not to compete today having suffered a sprained ankle prior to his arrival on the Gold Coast. He hopes to be compete in Round 2.
Last year’s ASP World Tour runner-up Taj Burrow won his heat, as did California’s Bobby Martinez and Taylor Knox, Hawaii’s Bruce Irons (USA) and Brazil’s Heitor Alves and Adriano de Souza. Kai Otton and Dayyan Neve join Burrow as the Australians not from the Gold Coast who won their first round openers.
The dates have been set for the end-of-season British Longboard Union Series Final in Cornwall
American Nathaniel Curran opened his French campaign with a win in his opening heat at the Sooruz Lacanau Pro, in France
Generation "Next" will hit the stage at Duke's OceanFest on Monday, August 18, in the Grade 1, $5,000 Macy's E-Series Junior Pro at Kuhio Beach, Waikiki
Six major retailers have agreed to implement new labelling on cotton bud packaging following persuasive action by SAS and MCS
Newquay surfer Russell Winter narrowly missed out on a place in the last 80 of the Sooruz Lacanau Pro, in France
Britain's Russell Winter bounced back from a disappointing first round exit at the recent Rip Curl Boardmasters in Newquay to make it through to round two of the Sooruz Lacanau Pro in France
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