billabong-pro-tahiti-abuchan
A fresh breeze blew on the Billabong Pro Tahiti and Adrian Buchan is obviously no stranger to that. Not that the 30-year-old surfer is a rookie on the Dream Tour, but we had not seen his bright Aussie smile on the highest step of the podium in a contest since the Quiksilver Pro France in 2008. Then too, "Ace" defeated Slater in final. His fluency in the Tahitian barrels raised hell through the ranks of the high seeds of the Top 34. Dominated by Perrow in the first round and worried until the buzzer by Logie in round 2, Ace "raised his level," as he stated after his win posting an average score was 16.28 points per heat. In Tahiti this year, you'd be wise not to cross the barrel-compressor Buchan, who makes his entry in the top 10 of the WT (ranked 10th) with an eight place increase in the rankings.
Surfagram co-founder Nykola Duma.
Journalist Vincent Martin.
Not included in the Top 34 analysis: Owen Wright (AUS), Tiago Pires (PRT), Dusty Payne (HAW) and Glenn Hall (IRL) who was wounded and missing in Teahupoo, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) who was unable to finance his trip to Tahiti lacking sponsors. Their replacements were Yadin Nicol (AUS), Pat Gudauskas (USA), Jocelyn Poulou (PYF), Nathan Hedge (AUS) and Ian Walsh (HAW) and the two wildcards from the trials: Alain Riou (PYF) and Anthony Walsh (AUS).
Editor’s Note: This article is a collaborative work between Vincent Martin and the Surfagram team (Nykola Duma & Pierre-Arnaud Marcelot). Vincent is a journalist and runs the popular French surf website Planète Surf. Nykola is a graphic designer and art director and Pierre-Arnaud is a software engineer. Together, they created Surfagram–a fun and visual way to look at ASP World Tour results and statistics on contests and surfers.