Sixteen-Year-Old Aussie Beats World Champion Kelly Slater at the Rip Curl Pro Surf Event in Portugal
Sixteen-year-old Aussie teenager Jacob Willcox has defeated the 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater at the Rip Curl Pro Surf Event in Portugal. The said surfing event is currently running from Oct 9 to 20, at Supertubos.
Jacob Willcox won the under-16 world title in June.
Willcox was a wildcard from Western Australia, and he has definitely made his name known after beating Kelly Slater in the opening round of the second to the last World Championship Tour (WCT) event in Portugal.
"It was pretty fun out there and I got a couple of good ones," Willcox told the Herald Sun. " I was happy to get the chance to surf against Kelly and those guys during the trials, especially win, so I feel extremely happy," Willcox added.
Willcox got himself a huge left-hand barrel to give him an eight-point ride. "Kelly had precedence and I was just a little bit more up the beach," Willcox said. "This wave came to my left and I just pulled into it and luckily, got a pretty decent score," he added. "I managed to get a couple more to back it up too," Willcox said.
"I knew the banks pretty well because I got a few waves out here yesterday, and this is my second time to compete in a WCT so I kind of knew that I needed to keep my composure and it came out pretty good," Willcox said.
Check out the video from Herald Sun here.
Willcox's triumph over Kelly Slater has sent the most successful champion in the history of surfing in a do-or-die heat on the second round.
Prior to surfing against Slater, the young Aussie surfer had beaten Ruben Gonzalez, Nic von Rupp and Marlon Lipke in the final heat.
Fellow Australians Joel Parkinson, Josh Kerr, Kai Otton, and Taj Burrow were also declared winner in heat one.
Kelly Slater has neither released any comments nor statements yet about Willcox's impressive win against him. Surely, it shouldn't be that big of deal for Slater if Willcox had beaten him. Slater already has won 53 times in WCT and has won 11 world titles. Maybe it is time for Slater to pass his long-standing WCT victories to someone else. What do you think?