Quik Pro France Stats

EVENT 7; France 2009 … Mick went to France ranked number 2 in the world and he was just under 1000 points behind Joel Parkinson on the ladder. He heads to Spain still 2nd but is now trailing by less than 150 points… Approximately one heat win between the two surfers, or is there?

Mick was again in the zone and apart from a hiccup in round 1, defeated all comers to take out his 11th Dream Tour event and his second in France. France has been one of Mick’s best and worst venues, he has two 33rds, a 17th and a 9th there in the last 8 years but now has two wins (09 & 07) and a 2nd from 2006. He missed the event in 2004 when he was injured and way back in 2000 he placed 33rd as a wild card.

On his way to his 11th tour victory Mick took on 8 different surfers and defeated 7 of them only losing in round 1 to giant killing wildcard Patrick Bevan who eventually went out in 3rd position when defeated by Durbidge in the semis. Fanning defeated Becalso (by 0.57 points), wildcard Villaran (7.53), wildcard Julian Wilson (2.48), Jordy Smith (1.40), Taj Burrows (3.80), Tiago Pires (5.10) and Bede Durbidge (3.80) in the Final. Mick stretched his head-to-head record over Bede to 4-1 and stretched his ratio to 8-4 over Taj.

Fanning surfed 7 heats for 6 wins (86%) Posted 4 scores over 16.00 from round 4 to the final and had an event average heat score of 15.31. Fifteen of the 63 heats in France were won by less than one point and another thirteen by less than two points in some classic competition surfing. The closest being Michel Bourez defeating Adriano by 0.1.

Mick’s recent form is building a phenomenal finals campaign record. He has made the final rounds 43 times in the 81 events he has surfed, and reached the final heat 19 times for 11 wins. So this adds up to Mick making the final in every 4.26 events he surf’s and wins events 1 in every 7.3 events he surfs.

Previous to this event in France Mick had won his 10 events against 10 different surfers and he had always come from winning in round 1. this 11th event win was for the first time he has had to do it from the losers round and he defeated Bede for a second time in a final, they first met in the final on the Gold Coast 2007.

Mick posted his 9th score over 17.00 for he season in France (53 in his career), there were a total of 6 posted in the event with Dane scoring 2, Kelly 2, Mick 1 and Tiago 1. This makes 45 for the year posted in competition; Mick 9… Dane, Kelly & Joel 6 each… Bede, Adriano, Kekoa & Dingo have 2 each and 10 others have 1 each.

Looking at the Kelly Slater versus Tiago Pires quarter-final on the final day; it was the fourth time the two had met on the Dream Tour and now the ledger stands at two all. Tiago won this clash with a 17.70 to 17.40 heat score which totaled 35.17 between the two making it the second highest ever in France. The highest ever was the round 4 clash in 2005 that totaled 35.50 between Andy Irons Hawaii 18.73 and Mark Occhilupo Australia 16.77.

MILESTONES IN FRANCE
Freddy P surfed in his 50th event in France… C.J surfed in his 350th heat… Slater surfed in his 250th final (110 quarters .. 82 semis.. 58 finals for 41 wins) In the next event in Spain Chris Ward will surf in his 50th event… Slater goes into the event with 599 winning heats… Tim Reyes has 47 wins… Adrian Buchan has surfed in 97 heats. And the biggest mover in France was Tiago Pires who moved from 33rd position to 23rd position.

THE ROOKIES OF 2009
The challenge for the Rookie of the Year is really hotting up with the top two rookies locked together in the 19th position with identical stats and results after 7 events. Hawaiian Kekoa Bacalso and Tahiti’s young charger Michele Bourez have both surfed in all 7 events, both had a 5th, two 9ths, two 17ths and two 33rd results so far for an average result of 17.57. Both have surfed in 17 heats for 9 wins each giving the pair a season win ratio of 52.94%. And what is even more amazing is they both have an average season heat score of 12.95 points per heat. Both surfers turn 24 this season, the only thing that does seperate them is Michele has a season highest heat score of 18.27 at J-Bay and Kekoa’s highest season score is the 17.34 he posted at Bells.

There are 8 first year tour surfers in 2009 and 3 find themselves inside the top 27, one is on the cusp and the other 4 are struggling to make it in the big league. Becalso and Bourez are locked in at 19th position, and Frenchman Tim Boal has moved back into the top 27 with a career best 9th position in France and moved up into 21st position. Boal has had 7 heat wins from his 14 heats for a 50% win ratio. The other rookie in contention is the second Hawaiian Dustin Barca sitting in 30th position and just 58 points outside of the qualifying mark.

Aloha, Mike Newman

Mick celebrated his 11th World Tour win in France. © Getty Images