Taj just took out his first win of the season this year at Trestles. In tricky small conditions, it was the West Oz tour veteran who managed to get in rhythm with the ocean and build on his lead despite Julian Wilson’s electric form throughout the event.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Burrow said. “I really put so much effort in to this event and it just feels so incredible when it unfolds and goes your way. I felt like the good waves came my way and I was just in the zone. I was hoping to get things snowballing and I never felt like I put together my best surfing. I was just finding my feet more and more each heat. My board kept getting better and better and it felt great towards the end. That’s how you want to win an event, peak at the right time. I knew Julian (Wilson) would be tough. Even if I saw a wedged out close out I would have taken it if I had priority because I know what he can do. I surfed as smart as I possibly could. I thought I made a couple of errors, but they ended up playing out.”

Burrow’s win at Trestles marked his third final at the venue but only his first victory.

“It feels so good to tick this one off the list, I really wanted it more than any,” Burrow said. “I’ve had two second places and one really close one with Kelly that I lost in the last minute. That one tore me up for a long time. I just couldn’t be happier that I got it.”

Despite Kelly’s early exit, ratings leader Mick Fanning wasn’t able to seize the opportunity to further extend his lead, losing to Travis Logie in Round 5. That said, it’s only his first throw-away result of the year so the 2-time world champ looks in a strong position going into the tail-end of the season.

“I came up a bit short in my heat yesterday and then I just made one mistake at the start of the heat and Travis (Logie) got that 8 and there wasn’t anything to fight back,” Fanning said. “Sometimes that happens. For me, to be bettering results, I had to get a 3rd and it was still a lot of work to do, but it would have been good to get more of a lead. This is my first throwaway for the year and it might be a good time to reset and refocus moving in to these last few events. Going in to these last three events, you want to win events and I’m just going to throw everything at it.”

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES FINAL RESULT:

1 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.07
2 – Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.97

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES SEMIFINALS RESULTS:

SF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.83 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.10
SF 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.40 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 12.43

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES QUARTERFINALS RESULTS:

QF 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.67 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 12.33
QF 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.93 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 13.70
QF 3: Michel Bourez (PYF) 17.90 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 14.00
QF 4: Julian Wilson (AUS) 15.64 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 13.04

HURLEY PRO AT TRESTLES ROUND 5 RESULTS:

Heat 1: Kai Otton (AUS) 11.50 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 8.83
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.60 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.47
Heat 3: Travis Logie (ZAF) 13.23 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.74
Heat 4: Josh Kerr (AUS) 14.10 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 12.93

CURRENT ASP WCT TOP 10:

1 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 41,900 points
2 – Kelly Slater (USA) 40,700 points
3 – Jordy Smith (ZAF) 35,700 points
4 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 35,400 points
5 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 32,450 points
6 – Josh Kerr (AUS) 29,600 points
7 – Julian Wilson (AUS) 28,850 points
8 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 27,500 points
9 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 27,200 points
10 – Michel Bourez (PYF) 26,500 points
10 – Nat Young (USA) 26,500 points