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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"http:\\/\\/image.surfingmagazine.com\\/f\\/news\\/surfing-world-championship-tour\\/25972454+w545+st0\\/09_09_03_richie_surf.jpg\\\" title=\\\"09_09_03_richie_surf\\\" class=\\\"alignnone\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;B&gt;SURF:&lt;\\/B&gt; chest- to head-high wind slop&lt;BR&gt;&lt;B&gt;EVENTS HELD:&lt;\\/B&gt; Round 4 through final&lt;BR&gt;&lt;B&gt;NATURE&amp;#8217;S CALL:&lt;\\/B&gt; so over it&lt;BR&gt;&lt;B&gt;PREDICTED:&lt;\\/B&gt; Mick Fanning wins France&lt;B&gt;(8 a.m. Windy mush) How&amp;#8217;s this for a cold cup of coffee: 22-year old Australian super-pro, Joel Parkinson exits his round 4 match 3-minutes early, leaving local veteran and the mostly jubilant Pat O&amp;#8217;Connell needing a 9.83.&lt;\\/B&gt; It might as well have been a combo. Pat&amp;#8217;s form on this early, crusty day was crazy smooth, flowing effortlessly, with his crumble float acceleration very pure. But Parkinson&amp;#8217;s wave-form knowledge was impeccable, when he read a mid-bay right for a 9.43 of high-wall carving to merit a much cleaner day. Watching closely you&amp;#8217;ll see, this tour merits a much larger following. With each turn being a tool for the next, viewing is almost like a ride through our very own eyes. Like as Parko pops a little air out of the second big carve, the show-time is so prevalent you can feel as if you&amp;#8217;re sticking it with him, going, &amp;#8220;yeah, that&amp;#8217;ll do it &amp;#8212; give those judges what they want.&amp;#8221; Kelly Slater is the dean of that dance. He&amp;#8217;s the six-time world champ, he&amp;#8217;s the formula. For the most part, all of the Parkinsons and Fannings, Burrows and Irons still have to wait for him to deliver something to emulate. It&amp;#8217;s kind of like Curren back in his day, only Kelly&amp;#8217;s less elusive, which could be a small hindrance in that he&amp;#8217;s not disconnected from the close dissecting of his act. In round four he cut Brazilian Neco Padaratz into small pieces with A-bomb hacks linked like basic roller coasters, while his peers pinpointed a few small mistakes. Oh, to be the most perfect surfer in the world.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"http:\\/\\/image.surfingmagazine.com\\/f\\/news\\/surfing-world-championship-tour\\/27180574+w545+st0\\/09_09_03_richie_win.jpg\\\" title=\\\"09_09_03_richie_win\\\" class=\\\"alignnone\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Speaking of perfect surfing, Quarterfinal No. 1 was built of none other than Taj Burrow and Mick &amp;#8220;The Silk&amp;#8221; Fanning. If anyone, it would have to be one of these two to take Kelly; that was the vibe on the beach. As the conditions turn out, Taj would wind up (no pun intended) having Fanning under his thumb by the half way, and a sickening thought, really, have you any idea of the whistling blond&amp;#8217;s prowess for these past three days. He&amp;#8217;s been doing turns that &lt;I&gt;defy&lt;\\/I&gt; emulation. One carve-down on the late afternoon juice of day two was so impressive that he&amp;#8217;d placed his entire back &amp;#8220;inches from the steepest place on the wall, but it wasn&amp;#8217;t a layback at all.&amp;#8221;  Try that riddle on for size, when you&amp;#8217;ve simply wished for &amp;#8220;just&amp;#8221; a Taylor Knox hand-pivot.After a HOT Victor Ribas had squarely canceled the &amp;#8220;Bruce Irons popularity hour,&amp;#8221; leaving Ma and Pa Irons glum, but brother Andy not so much so, I got to ask Taj about his last big heat, and right as Kelly&amp;#8217;s next one came underway. &amp;#8220;Is your biggest problem behind you now?&amp;#8221; I asked. &amp;#8220;Oh, I&amp;#8217;d say so,&amp;#8221; he replied. Kelly rode his first quarterfinal wave, up against Taylor Knox, a {{{mid-size}}} left. Taj watched loosely and continued, with a question, &amp;#8220;Did you see Mick&amp;#8217;s surfing over the last couple of days?&amp;#8221; &amp;#8220;No one was even close.&amp;#8221;  Out front Taylor hooked a good score from a bad right with precise carves. Taj finished his thought and said, &amp;#8220;But I&amp;#8217;m very relaxed now.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Taylor had to be precise: Kelly was now trailing the blood of a 17th-placed Andy Irons, and Taylor knew from prior experience just what that means. Fortunately, he didn&amp;#8217;t let it faze him, but instead, kept in a battle of his own. In their last meeting, a month ago at J-Bay, reportedly Kelly had done an awfully mean thing to Mr. Knox &amp;#8212; beating him like a small child with curly red hair. Today Knox had his payback in the form of a 3-foot right and two dragon-fire wraps worth a 9.0. Unfortunately, he may have been a little prematurely fond of his work, when he rode in switch for the victory lap. At the start of Semi No. 1, it almost looked like Taj would suffer a similar fate. The supreme confidence of Taj Burrow was being left in a rancid pile of burger, while a revving Victor Ribas shot out into the lead. It was unexpected and a good explanation of why Pat O&amp;#8217;Connell flicked me in the ribs as the soft-spoken and light-weighted Brazilian slashed a second left, delighting the little Irishman to say, &amp;#8220;Look&amp;#8211;he&amp;#8217;s got a motor under there.&amp;#8221; He had found two 7.0s and a healthy lead. But he failed to build it, and that was his bad mistake. Taj found &lt;I&gt;his&lt;\\/I&gt; rhythm in the dying minutes and put him away. Leaving the small bloke nothing but to shout a bit of Portuguese aggression as he walked away.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.surfingmagazine.com/news/090903_boost/>