Joel Parkinson Defeats Damien Hobgood in the J Bay Billabong Final

Aussie Joel Parkinson has defeated USA’s Damien Hobgood in the 2009 Billabong Pro at Jeffrey’s Bay, consolidating his lead in the ASP World Tour ratings. We also have the results for The Clash of The Icons.

The best surfers battled it out at the world’s best point break, drawing record crowds, delivering some of the highest scoring waves on this year’s ASP World Tour, and ensuring that the 2009 event will go down as one of the finest in history.

Without enough surf predicted to run the full-length competition, a new format had to be called on. Instead of the losers of the first round getting a second chance in a second round, surfers went straight into man-on-man elimination heats, setting the stage for some explosive surfing.

After a double cold front, the legendary Super Tubes (J-Bay) started pumping and the stage was set.

Kelly Slater, four-time winner of the J-Bay Billabong Pro and nine times world champion, got knocked out by Taylor Knox in their third-round clash. With a win in the previous ASP event (Brazil) and today’s =9th place finish, Slater (currently ranked no.

could start a charge for an extraordinary 10th world title.

And, yes, he did make that floater, and pulled in to two barrels on that same wave scoring 9.2 out of a possible 10, in fact in that heat Slater defeated Nic Muscrof with four 9+ scores (only needing 2).

Billabong set up a two heat clash between genius Mark Occhilupo and soul surfing legend Tom Curren, who have produced some of the most thrilling clashes in surfing’s history. These two icons had come head to head 16 times but since they had both won 8 each, there was a score to settle.

The Clash of the Icons saw history repeating itself once more. After surfing two heats, the results are in and… it’s a draw! 9 all! Occy hinted that we would love to see Billabong organise the next clash at Mundaca.

And yes, Dane Reynolds did make that move… whatever ‘that’ was. Dane also won himself a $10,000 Nixon watch for racking up the highest heat total in the contest, showing why Kelly Slater called Reynolds the best surfer in the world.

The results for the Nixon WTA Award – Winner Takes All:

Dane Reynolds

19.20 points scored Dane a limited-edition Nixon timepiece.

Kelly Slater

In second place (again) by 0.36 with a 18.84 point heat total. Last year Slater came second to Taylor Knox who scored 19.70.

Sean Holmes

With 18.60 points Sean nailed third in the WTA Hall of Fame, but nothing more.

And the winning sand ‘castel’ in the Pimp my Sand Castel showdown:

Second place…

With Joel Parkinson’s (Parko) victory at J-Bay he has consolidated his lead in the ASP World Tour ratings. Could this be Parko’s year?

This is him again, pulling in to the longest, sickest barrel of the contest. Not many people on the beach saw Parko make this barrel (wrongly assuming that he had wiped out), luckily the judges did, a perfect 10!

Joel’s victory came 10 years after Billabong tossed him a wildcard that resulted in a career-launching win at Jeffrey’s Bay.

Winners at J Bay for the last decade:

2009 – Joel Parkinson

2008 – Kelly Slater

2007 – Taj Burrow

2006 – Mick Fanning

2005 – Kelly Slater

2004 – Andy Irons

2003 – Kelly Slater

2002 – Mick Fanning

2001 – Jake Paterson

2000 – Jake Paterson

1999 – Joel Parkinson

10 best wave scores (out of 10):

10.00 - Joel Parkinson

10.00 - Joel Parkinson

10.00 - Dane Reynolds

10.00 - Dane Reynolds

10.00 - Michel Bourez

09.93 - Sean Holmes

09.80 - Kai Otton

09.63 - Dean Morrison

09.60 - Taylor Knox

09.57 - Kelly Slater

The 2008 event only saw two perfect 10s, with Joel claiming one of the two.

10 best average heat points:

19.20 - Dane Reynolds

18.84 - Kelly Slater

18.60 - Sean Holmes

18.50 - Joel Parkinson

18.27 - Michel Bourez

17.83 - Joel Parkinson

17.83 - Dane Reynolds

17.63 - Dean Morrison

17.50 - Bede Durbidge

17.17 - Mick Fanning

Last year Taylor Knox ripped up a 19.70 heat total. As above, in the 2008 event Slater pulled in the second best heat total with 19.14 points.

The 2009 J-Bay Billabong Pro Poster:

J Bay ’09 Billabong Wave Stats

346 waves were surfed during the event (compared to 512 in 2008)

39 waves - Excellent

77 waves - Good

100 waves - Regular

130 waves - Poor - Bunch of cooks! (Just kidding