Recently in ASP World Tour Category

Jordy Smith is having the best year of his career.  Currently sitting in sixth place on the tour rankings and making his first ever podium on the WCT with a third at Bells Beach.  The demand for the South African superstar is at an all time high.  We caught up with him in the freezing blustery conditions of Cape Town, during the O'Neill Cold Water Classic to get the low down on surfing at his hometown in Durban.

Tell us about surfing in New Pier?
Yeah New Pier, all my friends and family are down there so its kind of fun going back there and getting some great waves. The spot is an amazing wave, there's a little jetty going out which produces perfect rights, and there is also another perfect bowl that has lefts where you can get a couple of little barrels every now and then. You can go out there on any given day and see all groms pushing and shoving to get a wave, its great to see I love it.

The Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro ran Round 2, the elimination round, yesterday, and proving that our boys stand straight up when their backs are against the wall, Jordy Smith, Adriano De Souza and Tiago Pires, who trounced Dane Reynolds, all lit their respective heats up. For the first time this year we're looking at everybody on the Red Bull squad seeded into Round 3...which is nice.

Apparently Jordy "was devastating against Ben Bourgeois." Most notably, he racked up the highest single wave score of the day, a 9.00 out of a possible 10.

"It's still pretty tough out there and it's difficult to find a spot to line up," Jordy would say "There are some pretty good waves coming through the bowl though and if you can get on them, you can open up a bit. I just got lucky with my wave ion and was able to put up a couple of scores."

Day 2 of the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro, Stop No. 4 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, has awoken to another morning of clean four-to-six foot (2 metre) waves on offer at Praia Vila, prompting event organizers to call the elimination Round 2 on starting at 8am.

"We have similar conditions to yesterday in terms of swell but the sun is shining and the conditions are projected to be a bit cleaner today," Perry Hatchett, ASP Head Judge said. "We'll be starting Round 2 at 8am and looking to complete the round by day's end."

The Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro is underway, and with one day in the books the drama's on hot and heavy. Mick Fanning continued to terrorize the world's best surfers this morning, employing his lightning-fast forehand approach to navigate the thumping beach breaks. Although slow to start, the powerful natural-footer picked up momentum throughout the heat, netting the day's highest heat total of a 16.43 out of a possible 20, including a 9.50 for a blistering assault on a roping righthander.

"I couldn't find a rhythm towards the start and Aritz (Aranburu) came out with a 5, I came out with a 6, Aritz got a 7 and we went back and forth," Fanning said. "Towards the end, I was able to find a wave that stood up across the bank and it allowed me to really open up. I got one good turn off the top to start and just tried to stay on rail throughout the rest of the wave."

Despite being absent from last season's event with an injury, Fanning remains one of the most dangerous surfers in Brazil, with back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007. Sitting within striking distance of an ASP World Tour ratings jump, the Australian is focused on capitalizing at the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro.

"I've won the event the last two times I've been here so hopefully I can make it a three-peat," Fanning said. "It's still early days, but I'm feeling fit and focused and looking to put some results together over the course of these next events. I'm confident in my abilities in Brazil."

Tim Boal is now three events into his rookie campaign on the Dream Tour, and as to be expected, the learning curve has been steep. But not one to get ruffled by a little adversity, Tim's battled on and now finds himself ranked 25th in the world. He's locked in three consecutive 17th place finishes, and now, with over a month off before the tour swings through Brazil, Tim's got moving and shaking on his mind, but we'll let him tell you the rest:

"It's been non stop for the past few months since Bells, with a couple of WQS events and the Billabong Pro in Tahiti. Straight after Australia I headed to Carcavelos in Portugal to compete in the ASP WQS 6-Star event. It was good to be in contest mode again as prior to that, my only two contests in the last 6 months had been the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper and the Rip Curl Pro at Bells as I was injured for the last few months last year. My goal after the Australian leg was to surf as much as possible and compete more and more.

There's most certainly been plenty of down time during this year's Billabong Pro Tahiti, and while some while away the hours playing cards and skulling fruit drinks, a few of the more industrious lads on tour, led by local boy Michel Bourez, have opted to poke around the island's outer waters in search of obscure reef passes. Photographer Peter "Joli" Wilson beamed the above image of "a new reef pass surfable on Teahupoo flat days" across the pond this weekend. "It was just a short boat ride from a two-foot Teahupoo. I had two sessions at this wave yesterday and it was the best session I have shot in Tahiti this year," he explained. You can read more about the session at ESPN.com or to see some video check Surfline.com. That said, forecasts show a small pump in swell on Monday and Tuesday, and with the waiting period coming to a close this week it's looking like the contest will be wrapping up soon. Until then, you can bet that Michel and the boys will be heading back to this little secret gem.

It was a testing day for the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) 6-Star Prime competitors as the O'Neill Cold Water Classic (CWC) Scotland by Swatch entered its most exciting part with all top seeds having to face the tricky four to six foot (1.2 to 2 meter) wind-blown waves of Brims Ness and fight for a spot into the last 24-man pack. With no less than twenty-two heats being wrapped-up on this fifth day of the waiting period, most competitors had to surf twice in the cold 7°C water to keep their Highlands' campaign going and another four heats remain before the last 24-Man pack is decided.

Huge weekend for the Red Bull Surfing contingent. First we see Tim Boal flare up with a third place finish at the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro, and now Sally Fitzgibbons has done him one better and just slammed down at win at the WQS Women's 6-Star Estoril Billabong Girls Pro in Portugal. Beating fellow world tour rookie Coco Ho in the final, Sally bagged a good score early and never looked back.

"It's great to be back on the podium. It's definitely been some time between drinks," Sally said, shortly after hoisting her over-sized check. "I surfed a lot of heats before the final and paddled out quite relaxed and sat wide. I saw the tide starting to drain out and thought there were two peaks. I was lucky when the first one came wide and I got it."

Also worthy of note, Carissa Moore took a very respectable third in the event, and now sits atop the WQS leader board. It's obviously still a long way out, but young Carissa's definitely taken some steps towards graduating to the big leagues.

The final day of competition at the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro was supposed to be knee-high, onshore and rainy. Instead it was head-high, glassy and pumping. On the final day both Adriano De Souza and Tim Boal were still in the running, and if I must say, the conditions suited both of them perfectly. Adriano's surfing continues to mature, continues to improve. "He's so compact, so tight. Then he gets to the top and just explodes," pointed out Red Bull Rising guru Andy King. Adriano very easily could have gone the distance, but unfortunately ran into last year's champ and eventual finalist Ben Bourgeois in the quarterfinals. Less than a point seperated the two in the end, but it was Benny that got the edge. Tim did one better and made the semifinals, but couldn't find the waves he needed to get past Hawaii's Freddy Patacchia. Then again, nobody could find the waves to get past Freddy. From Day 1 to the end, Freddy owned it. "It must have been 10 years ago that I won NSSAs here," he joked after the final. "It's like coming back home again." With a little more money in their pocket and points in the ratings the boys are shipping off to Tahiti for the Billabong Pro, which gets underway this week...but more on that to come.

Click here for behind-the-scenes coverage from ESPN. 

Well folks, it was a hell of a heat. Mick and Jordy traded waves for 30 minutes, the lead changed back and forth, and not a section went by that wasn't destroyed, but thanks to a 9.17 (the highest score on the day thus far) Jordy edged out Mick and moved on into the Semifinals. That was the good news for Jordy, the bad news is that he had to face Joel Parkinson. If you haven't noticed, this year Parko ain't messing around, and like everybody he's faced so far this season, he dispatched of Jordy. It was one of the best surfed heats of the event, but unfortunately didn't work out in the South African's favor.