TWO surfers who had never won a major heat in their lives took down two of the biggest names in surfing as a shark, the first perfect 10 and stunning barrels made an appearance at the Margaret River Pro on Thursday.
Jay Davies took out World Champion Gabriel Medina.
The 25th, inflicted by local Jay Davies, is Medina’s worst result in 14 events and could be a death blow to his bid to defend the world crown he won last year.
The heat will also be one he remembers with a shark sliding past midway through the bout.
“We had shark cruise through the line-up which was a little sketchy, but it was only a baby one eating some fish,“ said local Davies.
Last year Kelly Slater set the social media world alight when he shared a video of a dark shadow passing over him as he surfed with many swearing it was a close encounter with a shark.
He later came clean, revealing it was in fact a fellow surfer.
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| Photo: WSL / Cestari Medina was followed to the beach by inform surfer Filipe Toledo who had shared the world No. 1 ranking with Mick Fanning heading into the event. Toledo was beaten by New Zealand tour rookie Ricardo Christie. As the big names fell, Australian surfers shone with Owen Wright collecting the first perfect 10 of the event at The Box in his 18.50 to 10.90 defeat of Hawaiian Dusty Payne. “The set came so I just went. After my10 I remember going, ‘give me more’. I just love it and I love waves like this,’’ he said. One of the most popular victories of the day was Josh Kerr’s. The Australia was the star of a massive wipe-out on day one but regrouped to beat American CJ Hobgood. |
