This year the World Championship script has done it's best to keep everyone guessing. Sometimes Mother Nature comes to the table to thrill... And sometimes to confound. But NOW! She seems to be joining the party to make things as interesting as possible. Take at look at the draw. Kelly has none other than Gabriel Medina to get past if he doesn't want to surf round 5. And with conditions as they are Medina i ...

Adam Melling came into this contest knowing that if he didn't make the finals his world tour dreams were over... Not only that if he didn't make at least second place he was down the toilet. Hey presto. Come the round of 32 and the apple cart started to turn over. Kelly Slater with one eye on the ultimate prize at Pipeline went down. Julian Wilson was already out. Next round and Joh John fell off the wagon. ...

So Sunset woke up with a few faces and some sets in the 6-8 foot range for the round of 128. Woke up and got the day done and then promptly went to sleep again. At this early stage everyone is holding their breath to see if the challengers are going to pose as threat to the names coming up in the round of 64. Well first up in that round Julian Wilson has been drawn against Sebastien Zietz the winner of Hale ...

Reef Hawaiian Pro Showdown. The great gods of the Pacific didn't really throw their hand in to serve up amazing conditions throughout the event but when they did it wrote a few stories. The finals even though there were lulls and weird ones and the odd moment of testosterone fuelled showdown gave us enough waves to show the talent with a pinch of drama coating. Kelly Slater went down to a call by the judger ...

Reef Hawaiian Pro 2012. The swell has not been kind for the start of the contest. There are a ton of big name scratching around wishing the promise of the swell would show up. But the small 1-2 foot didn't do a lot for the likes of Derek Ho who couldn't find anything decent enough to progress. Mason Ho though did the job in the round of 128 and blasted his way through so at least Derek had something to smil ...

All the predictions went out the window. We got one thing right Matty Wilkinson finally lit up and started punching his weight, we called it and it happened. In making the finals of the O'neill Coldwater Classic he has pretty much assured his spot on tour next year. And in doing so released a few guys in qualifying to maybe get on... Most likely his good mate Glenn Hall and that should be worth a beer or tw ...

There are some guys who will be cursing themselves for not coming to Steamer Lane and scampering off the cliffs to get in some early practice. This wave moves and bends. It has a pump up rebound off the cliff on some that can be a squasher on others. There are cross swells and double up's on the outside that can drop quickly to nothing or run all the way to the rocks. Then of course some break outside some ...

It was just what the script writer ordered. The guy sitting in the number one, Joel Parkinson, needed all the other runners to make it as hard for themselves as possible. And to a man they all set about doing that very thing. Round two could decide the world title right here. If all the top boys drop and Joel goes on to win the contest the title is his! And round two sees Kelly up against local have 'ratboy ...

The Canary Islands are Spanish. They sit off the coast of West Africa and are gnarly volcanic lumps that jut out of the ocean to face mid atlantic swells. The volcanic reef breaks are often carpeted with sea urchins and offer the most unwelcome surprise if you find yourself down there getting bounced around. If you do getting spines out from under your skin is an experience you won't easily forget... And ha ...

So there it is... It's like the Hollywood script writers have been in the studio behind the contest site. "Er so listen what we need is a big old gang bang at the finale where all the biggest players in surfing go for it in the best wave on the planet". It's almost like Gabriel Medina had a sneak preview... The emotion, the tears, all his family. The Passion. There has never been a season like it. There may ...