Surfing No.1 Fanning knocked out in France

4 Oct 2012, 8:58 am   -   Source: AAP
Australian Mick Fanning has been eliminated from the ASP event in France after breaking his board. (AAP)

Australian Mick Fanning has been eliminated from the ASP event in France after breaking his board. (AAP)

Mick Fanning has been eliminated from the ASP event in France after breaking his board, opening the way for Joel Parkinson and Kelly Slater to pounce.

Surfing's world title race has been blown wide open with current leader Mick Fanning sensationally knocked out of the Quiksilver Pro in France.

Fanning's surprise round three exit at La Graviere opens the door for fellow Australian Joel Parkinson and 11-time world champion Kelly Slater to make up ground heading into the business end of the ASP season.

Current No.2 Parkinson survived a low-scoring affair against Californian Patrick Gudauskas in other round three action to continue his bid for a crucial first event win of the year.

It was American wildcard Dane Reynolds who caused the upset of the event and perhaps the year so far when he eliminated world No.1 Fanning.

Two-time world champ Fanning gave himself virtually no chance of winning the heat after he failed to properly negotiate a wave and broke his board.

Reynolds finished with a combined wave score of 16.5, while Fanning's breakage caused him to register just 2.60 for the heat.

"That was a tough heat," Reynolds said.

"I was nervous coming up against Mick in kind of tense conditions.

"The peaks are all over the place and unfortunately for Mick he was out of rhythm and broke his board.

"It's not easy out there. There's obviously not pressure on myself to get a result here like Mick, but I still want to perform and surf well."

Meanwhile, Taj Burrow's hopes of making a late run for a maiden world title were crushed by American teenager Kolohe Andino in another major upset.

The No.6 ranked Australian was edged out 12.27 to 12.07 in a low-scoring heat.

Parkinson scored just 10.07 to progress through his heat against Gudauskas, and said his mindset was all about survival.

"They're really tricky conditions," Parkinson said.

"I saw Dane (Reynolds) get a 10 and I wanted to try and find one like that, but I figured every other heat has been quite low scoring. So if you get a seven, it's like a nine.

"The rest of the heat I just played defence trying to keep him off anything. It was a tricky heat with not a lot of waves, and a lot of paddling. It doesn't matter in these conditions who you draw - anyone can beat anybody."

World No.3 Slater is still waiting for his knock-out round three heat against Brazilian Jadson Andre.

After the Quiksilver Pro, there are three events left on the ASP calendar - next week in Portugal, next month in Santa Cruz, California and December's Hawaii Pipeline.

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