The Legend
Trip Start
May 06, 2011
1
4
27
Trip End
Mar 31, 2012
What I did
Billabong Rio Pro Surf Competition
Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Friday, May 20, 2011
We arrived about 10 minutes before surfing legend Kelly Slater,10 time ASP world champion and currently #1 in ASP world rankings at age of 39, was scheduled to hit the water. He was mobbed as he headed down the beach and into the water. But unfortunately for a sports fan with very limited surfing knowledge such as myself, the waves weren't crashing his way. He was upset by fellow American Bobby Martinez. After his heat was over though, he stayed in the water and proceeded to put on an aerial show for the all the fans for over an hour, even after he'd been eliminated (which cost him US$5,000 in fines for still surfing after his heat was over). The crowd was happy though - there's something very special about seeing the best there ever was do what he does best.
We stayed for the rest of that round and the following round. We then returned today to catch the semifinal and final because Brazilian "Mineirinho" was still in the competition. Sure enough he took home the title before the home town crowd. It was the highlight to everyone's day (except mine, which was getting recruited by midgets to do a beer bong). In these two days though, I saw surfing unlike anything I'd ever witnessed in person. I learned a lot about the sport and the number of professional surfers I now know increased about sevenfold... to seven. Enjoy some of the MANY great pictures I got from the competition and my struggle to provide captions for all of them.
Comments
your captions names are the best! thanks for sharing- i think you could sell some of those photos....juliet