Mick Fanning Wins 105k At The Hurley Pro Trestles

Ryan Brower

• September 19 2009
• 9,278 views
• 13 comments

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Mick Fanning puts the screws to Dane Reynolds to win the biggest first place check in surfing.

Earlier this summer Mick Fanning made the finals at the U.S. Open, and had a sniff at winning the largest first place prizemoney in surfing history, but he couldn’t close the deal. So it was only fitting that today, with Hurley adding five grand on top of that historic 100k, Mick Fanning would be the one to get the check.

Going up against an in-form Dane Reynolds (who had the two highest wave scores of the event), Fanning put on a contest surfing clinic in the final. It was a tricky 30 minutes of surfing, with a long lull kicking things off. Despite the lull Mick found a medium sized right and blasted a few vicious top turns for a 7.83. And then cruelly, it went flat again.

Finally a flurry of waves stacked up, and Dane logged a tenuous five, falling on the end of it. Then somehow he scrambled on to three more waves within a minute and a half but fell on two of them and only the third would end up as a keeper. In earlier heats he’d appeared sure-footed and deliberate, but in the final it seemed he just couldn’t find his rhythm. He later said he was cramping up before the final and was actually hooked up to an I.V. for some quick hydration.

A few minutes later another row of lines peaked up, and both surfers were able to catch a wave, then race back out and get another one at the end of the set. On his two Dane racked up an unimpressive 1.1 and a 5.77. Meanwhile, Fanning had ripped the gills off of his for an 8.5, and then a 8.9. That would leave Reynolds deep in combo-land. With just more than five minutes left, all the tail wafts and air reverse 360s in the world couldn’t get him out of the hole.

Still, it was good for the best result of his young World Tour career. With his third place finish at J-Bay, just before Lowers, Reynolds now sits just one spot outside of the top ten. “It was a good time,” Reynolds said. “You can’t win your first final, can you?”

In addition to winning the record breaking $105,000, the victory also shot Fanning up to second in the World Tour rankings. He’s now 936 points behind fellow Coolie kid Joel Parkinson, heading into the European leg of the tour.

And what of Kelly Slater and his quest for the record tenth world title? Slater got third today, quietly continuing is campaign. Although he’s still mathematically in the title hunt at sixth place, he’ll have to be near perfect from here on out, and Parko will have to get some 17ths or worse. Luckily for us and European Slater fans, he’s said that he will be heading over to the Euro leg of the tour.—Casey Koteen

Mick Fanning wins the highest prize purse in the history of surfing. Photo: English

HURLEY PRO TRESTLES FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.40
2 – Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.10

HURLEY PRO TRESTLES SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Dane Reynolds (USA) 16.77 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.23
SF 2: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.26 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 10.74

HURLEY PRO TRESTLES QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.83 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.50
QF 2: Dane Reynolds (USA) 18.20 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 12.50
QF 3: Kelly Slater (AUS) 13.84 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 8.17
QF 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.50 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.00

HURLEY PRO TRESTLES ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.67 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 5.83
Heat 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.50 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.00
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) 9.50 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 3.67
Heat 4: Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.60 def. Rob Machado (USA) 10.94
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.83 def. Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 12.50
Heat 6: Heitor Alves (BRA) 14.16 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.27
Heat 7: Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.83 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 11.96
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.63 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 10.43

CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 10 RATINGS:
1 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 5486 points
2 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 4550 points
3 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 4348 points
4 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 4272 points
5 – Damien Hobgood (USA) 3974 points
6 – Kelly Slater (USA) 3906 points
7 – Bede Durbidge (AUS) 3760 points
8 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 3685 points
9 – Taylor Knox (USA) 3616 points
10 – Bobby Martinez (USA) 3582 points