This years Billabong Pro Tahiti event will mark the 10 year anniversary of Kelly Slater’s first win at Teahupoo in 2000.

Due to the smaller conditions on the final day of the contest back then, Kelly rode a 6’1 x 18 ¼ x 2” MK2K (K-Board). The nose is much narrower and has much more of a pronounced flip in it which was characteristic of the time.

Here are a few photos of the board he rode in the finals. The board hangs in the Channel Islands Surfboards Flagship retail store in Santa Barbara California.

Kelly has won the event a total of 3 times in 2000, 2003, and 2005.

Read the ASP Press Release for the Billabong Pro Tahiti 2010 on ASPWorldTour.com

CI Van will be parked outside Warm Winds Surf Shop!

Though this may be her B roll footage while the best stuff is still in the hands of Nike to be released soon in their new movie, most of us would cal this SICK, for a boy or a girl!

Photos and Captions: Sherm

“Boards and waves will change constantly,” says Slater, “but the positions of the body are the one thing you are totally in control of at all times.” Photo: Wolcott / AFrame

by Kelly Slater

Speed. The essence of riding waves. There is no one magical secret to moving on a wave, but to extract as much speed as humanly possible from a wave depends on your knowledge of key elements such as equipment, your body, and the wave itself. Without a little help from everyone else, you could spend a long time trying to work it out yourself.

In all forms of knowledge, people have passed down information from one generation to the next, and now, with technological advances, information gets spread to everyone at the speed of light. If Jordy does a rodeo at Macaroni’s you can bet you’re gonna see it on YouTube in a day or two. That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do it, but you can see it nonetheless. With that, advancements in surfing speed up for the average person. You could say that surfing progresses because of all the different approaches and ideas that guys have on a wave, relative to their abilities.

Read the full article on SurferMag.com

The Premiere of Thrills, Spills and Whatnot

By Travis Ferré

Dane Reynolds sees surfing through a very cracked lens, and yesterday, I took a look through that lens. I made my way into his hotel room about 80 minutes later than I’d said I would, stepped over a not-so-cold 30-pack of Coors Light and settled in for what Dane called “The West Coast Premiere Tour.” In attendance for this West Coast Premiere, and hovering over Dane’s MacBook with us, were John Florence, Kai Neville, Blair Marlin, Darren Crawford, Dusty Payne, Chris Coté and Dane’s girlfriend Courtney, who is lead vocalist and drummer on many songs in the film.

“Is there a bar on this floor? I’m not sure I can watch you guys watch this,” Dane said as we all snapped blue-mountain Coors and prepared to hit play. “It’s not that kind of movie.”

After some coaxing from Courtney, Dane managed to stomach the pressure and settled in for the first-ever screening of Thrills, Spills and Whatnot.

Keep reading on SurfingMagazine.com

Kelly Slater: “I went to see Vitor Belfort yesterday and BJ [Penn] was in the middle of his training. Everyone was sitting around talking and BJ called me and Jason Parillo out to see our Jiu Jitsu skills. If you watch this, you probably aren’t going to see them. But they’re there…somewhere…

Read the whole story on SurfingMagazine.com

Also, congrats to Lakey Peterson on her 3rd place finish at the US Open this weekend (her first WQS event) !