Kelly Slater remains typically non-committal about his future but the 10-time world champion will head to Bells Beach still the man to beat after a record third title on the Gold Coast.
At the start of most seasons over the past decade, Slater has refused to confirm whether he will compete for the entire year or speculate about when his stunning career will end.
But the 39-year-old is seemingly still too strong for his competitors after knocking off defending champion Taj Burrow at Snapper Rocks and will compete at Victoria's Bells Beach in six weeks' time.
In one of the lowest-scoring finals in the event's history, Slater defeated West Australian Burrow 11.20 to 10.17 to pocket another title.
The Floridian will take his time before deciding whether to contest the entire season but it appears likely he will try for an 11th world crown.
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"There's no decision that's the wrong one," he said.
"I'll just go with how I feel and stick with that.
"You've got to link all the dots together and connect them all up and try not to make any mistakes along the way."
Burrow was bitterly disappointed in his performance, which he said was his lowest score in a major event.
He did record the best wave of the final, a 7.17 ride but could only manage a 3.00 for his best other effort, while Slater's 5.93 and 5.27 were enough for victory.
"You don't often have a three as your backup wave in a final," a frustrated Burrow said.
"All I'm looking forward to is throwing on my steamer and heading down to Bells.
"I'm feeling great in the water, I've got the best boards I've ever had and I'm just going to take the positives out of it and just be positive for the next one, that's all you can do.
"I am frustrated but it was just because of a lack of waves so I can't be too angry but I really, really wanted it."
Rising star Matt Wilkinson from the NSW central coast was narrowly eliminated in the dying seconds of his quarter-final by Portugal's Tiago Pires 14.64 to 14.40.
But on just his second year on the world tour, Wilkinson was happy with his effort overall, including an earlier heat win over Slater.
"I've been talking about surfing smart heats all week and went out there today and surfed as dumb as I could pretty much," Wilkinson said.
"I fell off a lot and caught some silly waves but I guess it's a learning curve and I'm stoked that I made it to the quarters.
"But I'm really disappointed right now, I had such a good chance and I guess I kinda blew it."
Burrow said he was also disappointed he and Slater couldn't put on a better show for the 10,000 spectators.
"If we'd got to surf an hour earlier when the waves were better it would have been so much better for me and Kelly as well as the spectators," he said.
