Photo: © ASP/ Robertson
Mark Occhilupo Margaret RiverWhile numerous top seeds, including Kelly Slater, Taj Burrow, Owen Wright, Mick Fanning and Bede Durbidge were knocked out on day three of the Telstra Drug Aware Pro Margaret River, a wild mix of veterans and young guns including Mark Occhilupo and John John Florence were among the eight remaining surfers set to compete in the quarterfinals.  The 45 year-old surfing legend Occy edged out Freddy Patacchia by just a .17 margin of points in windy, overhead conditions.

Photo: © ASP/ Robertson
Josh Kerr Margaret River“I got out of jail in that one,” said Occy, 1999 ASP World Champion and former two-time champion at Margaret River. “I was pretty comfortable at the start because Freddy (Patacchia) was having a bit of a shocker. Then he got an 8-point-ride under my priority. That’s probably happened about 200 times in my career and I went on to lose the heat about 180 of those times. The ocean went flat and he just couldn’t find another score. I got lucky.”

Photo: © ASP/ Robertson
CJ Hobgood Margaret RiverSlater was knocked out in the round of 24 by Aussie Tom Whitaker.  Slater fell on one his early waves that could have been high scoring and Whitaker captured the moment en route to winning the heat.  “90 percent of the time you can expect Tom to be on the best waves of the heat,” said Slater, who lost in the same round last year. “I had my chances. On my opening ride I fell on my last maneuver and if I didn’t I would have gotten a 9. I had a feeling that falling off would come into play later in the heat, because I knew Tom was going to get a good set and put himself in a good position.”

Photo: © Joli 2012 All rights reserved
Kelly Slater The BoxDuring one of the contest’s lay days, Slater and some of the other pros went to the other side of the bay to surf the legendary slab called The Box.  It was Slater’s first time surfing there in nearly 20 years.

Another surfer to advance is Hawaiian John John Florence, who scored the contest’s first perfect ten (video highlights below) and had the highest heat score of the event with a 19.70 to defeat fellow young American Kolohe Andino and reach the quarterfinals.

“The wind was coming into the waves at the start of the heat and my board kept flying away,” Florence said. “But towards the end I landed a couple of fun ones. I was paddling out pretty nervous because he (Andino) stomps airs like nothing, he’s such a good surfer. I just decided to free-surf the heat and it worked.”

For complete results, a webcast of the contest and more, visit the event’s official website, www.telstradrugawarepro.com.  Video highlights of John John Florence’s perfect ten, Slater’s elimination in the round of 24 and Occy’s victory in the round of 12 are below.