In the biggest victory of his surfing career, 21-year-old Billy Stairmand of Raglan has defeated ten times and defending Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Champion Kelly Slater (USA) whilst competing in Australia today (Friday 8th April) at the Telstra Drug Aware Pro.
The win thrusts the tenacious Kiwi surfer into the world sporting spotlight. The victory is akin to a young New Zealand golfer beating Tiger Woods or tennis player beating Rafael Nadal.
Stairmand went into the event ranked 58th in the world but today’s amazing result will see him climb inside the top 50 surfers in the world – a feat not achieved by a Kiwi male since Maz Quinn (Gis) in 2002.
Stairmand fronted up to the American surfer, described as the best surfer ever, in the 30 minute showdown at Western Australia’s Margaret River. He eventually eclipsed the American in the head to head match up 16.50 to 15.50 out of a possible 20 points in the massive 3.0m swells pummelling the coastline.
“It’s is crazy, got the biggest smile I ever had right now” said a disbelieving Stairmand.
Stairmand was clearly hunting the lefthanders and why not after growing up on the world famous waves at Raglan and surfing ‘lefts’ everyday.
“I went out trying to look for lefts then got a right hander at the start of the heat but that one lefthander I got had two big sections on it and formed up perfectly for me.”
The wave described by Stairmand scored a near perfect 9.0 points for the two big turns and put Kelly Slater on the ropes. Sure enough Slater came back strong and surfing an excellent wave in the dying stages, came up 1.0 point short with an 8.0 point ride to hand Stairmand an unexpected win.
Showing his cool or perhaps the shear enormity of the situation, Stairmand was not too worried about Slater’s last wave when asked about the situation.
“It was a littler wave, I wasn’t worried really, to have a man-on-man heat with him is crazy. I was having fun with Kelly Slater out there. It didn’t matter if he got that wave and beat me but to actually beat him here is a dream come true.”
Slater was sombre in defeat. “It wasn’t my day, I was one paddle away from that 9.0 point ride that Billy caught” said Slater post heat.
“When you haven’t got a nine point ride in three previous heats, it is pretty hard to get one in three minutes. But I had a chance on that last wave, it just wasn’t to be.”
Even though Stairmand has just completed the unthinkable, he has to focus on the remainder of the event including the next round where he comes up against two American ASP World Tour surfers Damien Hobgood and Patrick Gudauskas. Only twelve surfers remain in the $285,000 USD event which is one tier below the prestigious World Championship Tour events. The event runs through until Sunday.
Unfortunately Stairmand’s travelling companion Richard Christie (Mah) was unable to make it a Kiwi double after he was eliminated by two times ASP World Champion Mick Fanning 13.70 to 10.00 to place thirteenth overall.
Paige Hareb (Tara) is also competing at the event and is waiting for her next heat where she will go head-to-head against Courtney Conlogue (USA) amongst the final eight surfers in the event.
Ben Kennings, Surfing New Zealand
Slater out, Stairmand through to the round of 12 surfers who remain in this elite ASP PRIME event!
The event rolls on at www.telstradrugawarepro.com