By the time we got to this afternoon’s final, the surf was, frankly, terrible. But through this contest, Snapper Rocks had its moments. If there’s one thing Kelly knows how to do, it is to find those moments.

Kelly Slater has just won the first event of the ASP World Tour, the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks in Queensland. He beat last year’s Quik Pro winner Taj Burrow by 0.1 of a point in the final. Taj, you’d have to say, was spewing.

The Rip Curl Pro is the next event on tour, and runs over Easter. Kelly hasn’t yet made a commitment to do the whole year. No great surfer would call Bells a fun wave to surf a heat at, and none of ‘em really love competing there. But while Torquay can be a grind, looking at the smile on Kelly’s face as he was chaired up the beach through hundreds of clamouring, adoring fans a few minutes ago, my first thought was: How can he walk away from all this?

The king will be back.