Australia’s Taj Burrow has made it an Australian double, winning the season-opening men’s competition in the world championship surfing event on the Gold Coast.
Earlier on Sunday, Stephanie Gilmore won the women’s event.
Burrow scored a hard-fought victory over Brazil’s Adriano De Souza, grabbing the highest wave score of the final, a 9.43, halfway through.
De Souza fought back, with the result hanging in the balance after the siren went, while the judges marked their score cards.
But when the tally was done, the West Australian was handed the prize 15.86 to 15.60.
Burrow won this event in 2010 and Sunday’s result was a reverse of last year’s Quiksilver Pro when he narrowly lost to Kelly Slater.
“There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders with that final,” Burrow told reporters.
“Last year I had such a good event but then I kind of folded against Kelly. I didn’t have such a good final, and this year … I was really frickin’ nervous going out.”
Burrow said he never enjoys facing De Souza in finals.
“I don’t like surfing against him because he’s really tough and he always gets two good waves,” he said.
“So I just tried not to think about who I was against and just two good waves and tear them to pieces.”
That’s exactly what he did, scoring an almost perfect 9.43 on his best ride, which turned out to be the edge he needed to claim victory.
“It ended up being very close and I’m absolutely thrilled it went in my favour,” he said.