Josh Kerr threw it all to the wind – and won.
Saturday March 20, Surfers’ Point Margaret River, Western Australia: Josh Kerr (Coolangatta/Qld/Aus) claimed an incredible come-from-behind victory at the Association of Surfing Professionals 6 – Star Prime Rated Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River.
Kerr defeated the hometown hero Taj Burrow in front of the largest crowd ever seen at Margaret River estimated at 7000. Burrow appeared to have a stranglehold on the final when he opened with an excellent 8.5 ride and shortly after backed that up with another excellent eight point ride leaving Kerr requiring a combination of two scoring rides to win.
A larrikin at heart – Kerrsy laughs of dropping off the world tour in 2009 with style.
In the final five minutes Kerr caught two waves and unleashed three highest degree difficulty aerial moves, landed them all and scored a perfect 10 point ride followed by a 7.03 to turn the final around and take the win. “I thought it was well and truly over and I even said to Taj out in the water that he’d won and how amazing it was for him to win four events in a row!” said an ecstatic Kerr after the final. “I said I’m going in on this wave and as I rode the wave I thought I’d try and put on a show for the crowd and pull a big air – I landed it, saw another section and landed again and all of a sudden I have a perfect 10 point ride and I’m in with a chance!”
“I grabbed another smaller one on the way back out, knew that on a smaller wave I’d have to again go big with an aerial and I landed again! – It all happened so fast that I’m still shocked – It’s easily the biggest win of my career and I can’t believe it.”
Taj Burrow was on his way to his fourth win in as many starts, until Josh hit the ejecter seat.
Final scores in the final saw Kerr on 17.03 to Burrow on 16.5. Burrow was philosophical about the defeat. “Surfing against a guy like Josh Kerr you always know he’s capable of massive scores but that was amazing – he virtually congratulated me in the last five minutes and then caught that wave – he deserves the win, those aerials he pulled were massive – there was nothing I could do to stop him today”
TB knows the wave well and was on the better waves in every heat he surfed.
Burrow remains the number one rated surfer in the world and feels confident leading into his next major event at Bells Beach in just over a week’s time. “I feel great about my surfing, my boards are going well and I’m on good roll at present and I’m really looking forward to the next event – Hat’s off to Kerr today, he surfed amazing!”
Kerr heads to Tasmania next week and the determined Queenslander is now positioned to again re qualify for the elite ASP world tour.
