In typical dramatic fashion, it came down to the final wave, in the final heat, for Kelly Slater. Only this time, the final wave didn’t come through, and Adrian Buchan walked away the winner of the Quiksilver Pro France.

The win was the first ever on the ASP World Tour for Buchan, who is in his third year on the WCT. With the win, the Aussie jumps from #19 to #9 in the world rankings.

“I can’t believe it, to have Kelly in the final and to beat him, I am speechless,” Buchan said. “He is my hero. I have watched him win five events this year – he has just been phenomenal. He sets the bar so high for all of us guys, I am really thankful that surfing has got such a great custodian."

The final heat, held at Les Bourdaines, was a tight one. Buchan beat Slater 15.73 to 15.16 despite a last-minute wave popping up in the dying seconds. Needing at 7.51 score to win both the contest and his ninth world title, Slater could only muster a 2.23 score on the wave, which he caught with three seconds left.

“It’s cool that it came down to a wave in the end, at least it made it interesting,” said Slater. “Truth is though, Ace was more in sync with it. He got those open face ones and did the turns. I had one wave I surfed pretty good on that I knew was going to get me back in it. Then I just needed a chance in the end but there wasn’t quite enough time – I should have pushed for a 40-minute final.

“I didn’t think I had the chance to win with that last ride,” said Slater. “I would have been bummed if they gave me the score on it. Maybe people didn’t see it, but my foot came off, I didn’t make that 360 very clean and I didn’t really get above the lip on that air. Maybe if there would have been a punt section where I could have done a big air I could have possibly gotten the score, but I knew that score wasn’t going to be close. It’s frustrating though, to be so close – literally one score away from winning the title. I guess at this point I’m two heat wins from winning the title.”

Despite losing in the final, Kelly Slater still essentially has his ninth world title locked up. He only needs to finish 9th or better on the tour’s next stop, at Mundaka, Spain, or have both Mick Fanning and Taj Burrow fail to win at Mundaka for Slater to clinch #9.

Another interesting note at the Quiksilver Pro France was the return of Damien Hobgood. Damien, who has been struggling for much of the year, reached the semifinals, where he was knocked out by Ace Buchan. With the semifinal finish, Hobgood moved up to 26th in the world rankings. Only the top 27 stay on the WCT next year.

"I never really had a stellar heat the whole contest, so that was kind of a bummer but I’m really stoked with this result and hopefully I can build some momentum,” Hobgood said. “This is the result I needed to get my year started. It is a good start to the end of the year for me."

Prior to winning the Quiksilver Pro France, Buchan had never advanced past the quarterfinal round in any WCT event.

Included is the video highlight of Slater advancing to the semis. Be sure to check back later, as we’ll post the video highlights of the thrilling final at the Quiksilver Pro France!