Despite a suffering a hairline fracture in his foot a few days prior, Kelly Slater, nine-time ASP World Champion has claimed his fourth Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach title over current reigning two-times World Champion Mick Fanning. This brings Slater up to second place on the ASP World Tour rankings and perfectly poised for his 10th World Title campaign.

"It's a long year but I'm excited to put up a result here," Slater said. "I felt like I was surfing well on the Gold Coast but didn't get the result I was looking for. So to come here and back it up is a step in the right direction.

Runner up Mick Fanning was pleased with his result and he now sits at ASP World No 5 and in an excellent position to defend his title.

In the final it was Fanning who started early, banking a 7.17 to take an early lead. Slater answered back with an incredible Alley-oop maneuver on one high-scoring wave, and followed it with another excellent wave to total 17.3 out of a possible 20, to which Fanning had no reply.

Durban surfer Jordy Smith made it through to the quarter-finals of the event, where he came agonizingly close to defeating Mick Fanning. It was a 0.2 point difference in their scores that saw Fanning advance with 14.20 points next to Jordy's 14.0 points. After Jordy's second place finish at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast earlier this year he is sitting comfortably in third place behind Taj Burrow in first and Slater in second.

Submitted: Friday 09 April 2010