Kelly Slater took his second pro tour title of the season yesterday, out-surfing Australia’s Owen Write in the final of the Billabong Pro Tahiti and moving into the top spot in the ASP World Tour rankings. Slater’s win, a demonstration of unspectacular but sound tactical surfing, came only minutes after a tribute to late surfer Andy Irons organized by event sponsor Billabong and Irons’s brother, Bruce. Andy Irons won the Billabong Pro Tahiti last year, two months before he died suddenly in a hotel near Dallas, Texas. “Andy won last year and it feels really special to win this year knowing that,” Slater said. Slater also won in Tahiti in 2003 and 2005, and now owns 47 career pro tour titles. Though 39, Slater’s two wins this summer and his new position atop the pro tour may portend trouble for other surfers aiming for the ASP world title. Transworld Surf wrote that the performance has left : “There鈥檚 nothing new to report, Kelly is simply the most dominant surfer ever. Period.”
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