It all started with German powerhouse Marlon Lipke lifting a hungry but discreat fist after some deep rail work on the inside section of the Bourdaines sand bank that saw him make it right through to the quarter finals of the Rip Curl Pro 2008. Jihad Khodr, the flying Brazilian, probably took notice and after a huge frontside air in his quarter final heat we saw the second claim of the day, this time Brazilian style.

The crowd loved it, the judges too and it showed on the scoreboard. And next it was taken to another level by surfing legend, Chris ‘Davo’ Davidson. In his 30-minute final against Jihad, Davo literally free surfed his heat posting two 9 plus scores with his typical layback snaps and roared double fist claims. The kind of grunt that comes for deep inside. The kind of claim celebrating a successful re-qualification campaign, Davo will be surfing in the top 45 next year!

Opening his well deserved bottle of Champagne at the Cream Café, I couldn’t help myself from teasing him with the typical journo (stupid?) question…”You going for the world title next year, mate?”

Davo shook his head “No bra, but I would love to stop Kelly from getting his 10th title”.

Claims are back so is Davo!