Surfline requires Flash Player 9 or higher.
Please download and install the latest version of Flash Player before continuing.
RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH: DAY EIGHT
Kelly beats Dusty with injured foot; Taj, Fanning, Jordy flare up at Winki
Wow, we sure got through some heats today. Twenty, in fact, which means the rest of the event can easily be finished in a day. We won't know which day until we actually get to it -- this contest is stretching seemingly forever -- but it's good to know we're this close.
So, you want to know about Kelly, right? And Andy, and Taj, and Jordy, and Mick ... but mainly about Kelly.
Well, late yesterday, he was freesurfing out at Bells while Round Two was getting done up the coast at 13th Beach. KS landed on some backwash and twisted his foot on his board. When he woke up the next day, he couldn't walk, and he thought it was broken for sure.
But nobody knew any of this. Australia's surfinglife.com.au were the first to break the story through their connections with Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll, and it was complete news to everybody at the contest when it first went live on their site.
While the story was breaking, Kelly and Quiksilver Team Manager Stephen 'Belly' Bell were in the hospital in Geelong, the nearest city to Torquay, getting a scan. It was mere hours before his heat with Dusty Payne. When they found out it wasn't broken, Kelly asked for an injection for the pain, and hightailed it to the contest site. And beat Dusty, whose first wave was a 9.17.
If you were wondering whether Slater is committed to contests this year, I guess there's your answer right there.
"I woke up this morning and couldn't walk, and I thought 'There goes surfing,'" Slater said after his heat. "I went out there expecting to lose, then on my first wave I figured out I could surf ... but then Dusty got that nine."
"I couldn't even feel the top of my foot, it was completely numb, so I guess I dodged a bullet out there today."
He sure did. Dusty did one huge turn, maybe the turn of the contest so far, but couldn't find himself a backup wave. The Hawaiian rookie was fuming when he came in, and stormed off the contest site, forgetting to take his travel buddy Dane Reynolds with him.
|
