The Hurley Pro, 6th stop on the WCT, kicked off on September 13 in San Clemente, California. Contest director Pat O'Connell ran 3 man heats in Round 1 and 2 heats of Round 2 on the first day. In the final minutes of the day, we witness one of the biggest upset as Rob Machado, Hurley's wild card winner edges out Taj Burrow. Sitting with priority, Taj passes on a wave which Machado took off on. It was a tough loss for last year's finalist losing by .33. Needless to say, Taj was pissed and quickly left town. Hopefully the memories of last year's final and this year's early exit will not discourage Taj from coming back to Trestles. Monday and Tuesday, we saw the completion of Round 2 & 3. Evidently Rob was not finished with upsetting the draw by knocking out current world leader Joel Parkinson in Round 3.
The contest was held off for three days due to small waves. This forced Pat to run 15 heats on the last day of the waiting period. As the sun rose into the sky, we just saw glimpses of the south swell pulsing through. With two restarts in the morning during dead high tide, spectators on the beach were in for a long day. Wave selection was key to make it through the inconsistent condition, but Pat had no choice but to push on. Long day, but not uneventful with aerialists Dane Reynolds and Josh Kerr pulling off several 360's and reversals held the crowd's interest.
Not to mention 9x World Champion Kelly Slater was still in the draw before finally bowing out to Mick in the 2nd semi final heat. Surfing against Mick, it appeared Kelly was just not comfortable on this stick; falling off wave after wave trying to snap off the top of the wave. After his quarter final win, Mick was asked what he would do if he won $100,000 at the US Open of Surfing, he jokingly reply was, "I don't know... I'd probably kill myself since I'm going to Vegas the next day." Compared to Kelly's response to what he would do with $105,000, "Pay a lot of taxes." Just ask Brett Simpson, he paid about $47,000 in taxes. As the heats progressed, you could just see the eventual finalists, Dane and Mick, surfing better and with command and authority; nothing was going to stand in their way to getting into the finals.
Many of the spectators at Lowers were expecting Kelly Slater to win the Hurley Pro, but with him being comboed in the last 5 minutes of the heat, many fans started for the exit as their champ was exiting the contest. The finals was still exciting enough with Mick coming out charging and getting to solid waves early on. Call it nerves for being in his first ever finals, Dane did not ride his first wave until there was only 15 minutes left in the 35 minutes final.
Those of us left on the beach were all rooting for Dane and exasperated every time he fell while the clock wound down making it harder for him to get the two scores he needed. Dane's performance suffered from having to be in so many heats; his body was cramping and he had to be hooked up to an IV in between his heats. After several attempts at Lowers and the twinge of just being edged out of $100k six weeks earlier, Mick Fanning defeats Dane Reynolds in the finals to win at Lower Trestles in the 2009 Hurley Pro 17.40 to 13.10.
Sunburned, exhausted, and drenched in champagne, Mick hoists up the Hurley Pro trophy over his head and accepts the world record 1st place prize check of $105,000US. To cap things off, Mick moves into second place right behind fellow Aussie mate Joel Parkinson in the world rankings. 
The Hurley Pro was truly an event about the surfers out in the water and Hurley. There were barely any sponsor tents or other activities down at Lowers. There were large speakers playing music through out the day to entertain everyone while the contest ran. Hurley even handed out numerous Hurley beach umbrellas to keep other brand presence at a minimum. They really wanted to activate the Hurley brand on site. It was just a sea of Hurley umbrellas. It even got so hot that the camera crew on the water craft was driving around with a Hurley umbrella.
The WCT heads to France to start the European leg. First up is the Quiksilver Pro followed by the Billabong Pro in Mundaka and the Rip Curl The Search. Let the World Title race heat up.
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