Day 4 wrap - Quik Pro

Quarter final day dawned with some decent sets pouring down the bank at Snapper. CJ's Goldie curse continues and Taj took the win and will meet Gabe Medina in the semi's. Taj's looking strong and might be the guy to watch for the title.

Medina gets his semi's slot by taking out one of of the title favourites in Mick Fanning. Medina's 9.4 was the decider. Slater musta fancied his chances against Adriano de Souza. But by his own admission he didn't really pitch up on the day and couldn't get his head-space right. Not often Kelly gets a 12pt heat score.

Parko came out firing and sat way up the point, snagging all the deep barrels behind the rock. Pupo's tactic of sitting further down the line didn't seem to work out for him, so Parko took the win. He gets to surf against De Souza in the semi's. Options are for 2 Aussies in the final - or 2 Brazzo's.

Bianca Buitendacht got into her first ASP final, and surfed off against Steph Gilmore. Steph used all her experience and put together a bunch of good waves, whereas Bianca looked really nervous. Caught a few rails, blew some turns, but hey - amazing effort to get to the final to start with. She'll gain valuable experience from that final. Onwards and upwards!!

She went up even more in my estimations when in her post-final interview she mentioned she was donating all her prize money to a few local charities in George and JBay. Nice one young lady. A pay forward attitude will get you far.

Straight into the men's semi's. Taj vs Medina. Both look as hungry as stray dogs in a township. Taj is looking soooo sharp this year - like he really really wants it. Full commitment on all his turns and blowing them as big as he can. Medina snagged a wave under Taj's priority right before the final horn and ripped the hell out of it. A little repetitive in what he did on the wave, he needed a 7.21 to take the win from Taj....

Full on reality TV episode experience watching the 2 guys wait it out on the beach whilst the judges deliberated over the score. Finally the scores dropped, and Medina screamed. He snuck it...by a skinny 0.02. So one Brazzo in the final.

Semi 2 saw Parko take on Adriano. Parko was in full on barrel hunting mode, finding slots all over the place. Commentators had a lil dig about the contrasting styles of the 2 surfers...reckoned Adriano was like a rottweiller whilst Joel was as smooth as butter. Butter beat bark.

So, the final saw Parko take on Medina. Parko was on fire - more deep crazy barrels. One of which bust his board. He was looking like the man right up until 5 minutes from the end, but then everything changed. Medina got a high scoring wave to put him back in the hunt. And then picked up one way down the line which I reckon he was way overscored on - and it was enough for him to grab the lead from Parko. A lead change that Medina held onto until the final buzzer.

So the Brazzo takes Snapper.