billabong pro mundaka 2009 SON OF A BEACHBREAK

Adriano Wins Billabong Pro, Sopelana

As Jihad Khodr waded navel-deep to chair compatriot Adriano De Souza out of the gritty shoredump, it was obvious Adriano's early gamble had paid itself off, to the tune of $40 000.

Adriano had actually decided to base himself in the obscure town of Sopelana. Originally he'd hoped to score a few crunch-buckets at nearby reefbreak Menakoz, and score a little training solitude away from Mundaka.

As fortune/ location/ necessity would have it, he ended up putting in most of his warm-up sessions at the to-be contest bank and subsequently, now sitting in third position, has become a world title contender.

During the grand finale, De Souza's familiarity in the hackable and walling lefts (cum weird and twisted shoredump things) saw him have the complete edge over giant-killing rocknrolla, Chris Davo.

Once Jihad (and, by now, 600 other Brasilians who had materialised from the ether) had dropped him back in the makeshift competitor's area, Adriano couldn't wait to blurt it out ... after all, he was the first of his touring countrymen to take out a WT event since Neco won Hossegor in 2003 ...

It came out like a potato from an exhaust pipe -- "This one's for Brasil!"