Kelly Slater says the world surfing tour has reached its golden age.

The 11-time world champion stamped his authority on the opening event of the year at Snapper Rocks on Saturday, posting a near-perfect wave score of 9.87 mid way through the heat to put young gun Kolohe Andino from California and Aussie Garrett Parkes out of contention.

“All the best young guys (with the exception of Dane Reynolds) are now on the tour and they all want to beat each other,” the American veteran said after posting the day’s top two-wave total of 18.8 points out of 20.

“I think we have the best batch we’re going to get for a few years and we say that every year but I think it is true this year.

“These guys have all been talked about for a lot of years coming up and they’re finally here and coming into their own.

“Once they get a full year of experience under their belts I’d say the next two to five years are going to be super competitive with all those guys seeing who’s going to stand out from each other.”

Local favourite Mick Fanning pulled off a win in deteriorating conditions to go straight into round three but fellow Cooly Kid Joel Parkinson goes into Sunday’s sudden-death second round after just failing to grab the lead in his heat.

With seconds remaining he dropped into a deep barrel but the wave didn’t offer any real scoring opportunities and he was beaten by Adam Melling from Lennox Head 15.7 points to 15.3.

The only other Aussies to make it straight into round three were Owen Wright and Adrian Buchan from NSW.