Billabong Pro heats up in Tahiti

“BROKEN dreams at the Blue Lagoon” is how contest commentator Nick Carroll summed up the rout of eliminations at Teahupoo, Tahiti, during round two and round three of the Billabong Pro.

It was brutal to watch 12 of the existing top 45 surfers get chopped at Chopes, dashing their hopes on the Dream Tour to make way for the new 32-man format, which starts in the next event at Trestles, California, for the Hurley Pro in two weeks time.

Most noticeable was 29-year-old Dean Morrison – a 10-year veteran of the ASP World Tour and rated 38th going into the event – who needed to make the quarter-finals to survive the cut-off.

The well-known and well-liked Snapper Rocks surfrider won his round-two heat in convincing form, registering the second-highest wave, a 9.23 in the sudden-death round.

Dean has had some of his best results at Teahupoo and was looking to win his round-three heat against Mr Portugal, Tiago Pires.

He had the Portuguese powerhouse on the ropes throughout the heat.

But Pires pulled through a tight Teahupoo barrel right at the end to snatch victory.

It was a crushing loss to Morrison, whose Hawaiian wife Alana was in the channel, wooing him on.

But in the end he joined the eliminated, including Burleigh's Jay “Bottle” Thompson.

Jay also had a strong round-two heat, disposing of the oldest guy on tour, Taylor Knox.

Despite his loss, the Californian and close friend of Kelly Slater has qualified for the top 32.

In round three Thompson was then drawn against the most lethal pro on tour, Owen Wright, the lanky Lennox Head goofy who is a contender for this event and who systemically destroyed any hope of Bottle getting a look in.

To consolidate his loss and dropping off the World Tour, Bottle had made a bet with Bede Durbidge that he would drink two beers in succession, if he lost, to consolidate.

“Contests can be a weird thing. I've had some close calls through the year,” he said.

“I surfed well in the early heats at Bells but I didn't stand a chance today.

“But there's always the WQS and I could win a six star and be back on the World Tour.”

One happy survivor was Currumbin's Luke Munro, who was sitting on the bubble in 30th and, even though he was eliminated in round three, an equal 17th was enough to keep his dreams alive.

Munners, who has qualified twice on the Asp World Tour, lives to fight another day and compete for the rest of the year on the ASP World Tour.