Kelly Slater wins ASP season opener

SNAPPER ROCKS, Australia, March 9 (UPI) -- The professional surfing tour kicked off Wednesday with Kelly Slater of the United States winning the Quicksilver Pro Gold Coast contest in Australia.

The 10-time Association of Surfing Professional world champion won the 49th event of his career by topping Australian Taj Burrow with 11.20 points to 10.17.

Slater put together his best heat of the tournament in the finals after a solid but not spectacular preliminary series.

"I don't think I'm the only one that thought Taj was the standout of the event." Slater said. "At some point I had to stop getting 9s and I just picked the right heat."

Burrow was indeed the talk of the event in Queensland. He knocked off American Brett Simpson and South African Jordy Smith on the final day before running into Slater at the end of the day. "It was a fun event and it's just a bummer the waves didn't hang in there at the end," he said.