TEAHUPO’O, Taiarapu/French Polynesia (Saturday, August 27, 2011) – The Billabong Pro Tahiti presented by Air Tahiti Nui, Event No. 5 of 11 on the 2011 ASP World Title season, has been called off for the day with waves being reported in the 15 – 20 foot (5 – 7 metre) range.

“We’ve certainly never seen Teahupo’o in these conditions and it’s not possible to paddle in today so we’ve called competition off,” Pritamo Ahrendt, ASP International Head Judge, said. “With the conditions as they are this morning, I would be surprised if the tow-in session came off as a resounding success. It’s pretty heavy. Good luck to everyone taking a crack at it today, and we’ll be back tomorrow morning to check conditions.”

The Tahitian government has placed the entire coastline under a ‘Code Red’ advisory, prohibiting most craft from entering the water. Unfortunately, while there may be tow-in surfing going on today, it will not be possible to webcast with the embargo on small craft and the tower structure being threatened.

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30am to assess conditions for a possible 7am start.

When competition resumes, up first will be Michel Bourez (PYF), 25, up against Dusty Payne (HAW), 22, in Heat 4 of Round 3.

Surfline, official forecasters for the Billabong Pro Tahiti, are calling for a major, long period SSW swell will prevail today, before fading tomorrow. We’ll see a reinforcing bump of new SSW swell on Monday and surf will remain fairly solid, although the overall trend will be a slow fading one through early next week. Moderate E trades prevail Saturday before backing down by the end of the weekend, with light ENE wind possible early next week.

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI ROUND 3 RESULTS:

Heat 1: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 18.63 def. Cory Lopez (USA) 8.96
Heat 2: Josh Kerr (AUS) 17.70 def. Julian Wilson (AUS) 16.87
Heat 3: Kai Otton (AUS) 13.60 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 10.33

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 5: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) vs. Jadson Andre (BRA)
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Ricardo dos Santos (BRA)
Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 8: Chris Davidson (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 9: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 10: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 11: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 12: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)

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