Photo: ASP / Kirstin Scholtz

Mick Fanning has defeated Joel Parkinson 17.00 points to 13.60 points on the sixth tour stop. Parko took the first wave but couldn’t get out of the barrel, Fanning grabbed the next and scored a 9.0 and from that point, he held the lead till the end. In the final minutes, Parko’s only hope was for a near perfect score, but it wasn’t to be.

There were dramas earlier in the comp when Jeremy Flores took issue over the score given to Sebastian Zietz during their round two heat. He raised the issues directly with the judges using colourful language and a little bit of argy-bargy. That earned him a $6K fine and exclusion from the next two stops effectively ending this tour for him. Everyone writing about this is using Bobby Martinez as the precedent  for bad behaviour punishment but they have missed that this in some ways validates what he said… ‘Wannabe’ tennis tour could be right. At least the judges at a tennis comp can take a little argument over their decisions.

Fanning, Bourez and Medina are the only surfers to take wins this tour – we’re past the half way point and it’s going to get interesting from here.