AUSTRALIAN surfers fought valiantly right until the end, but could not bring home a victory in the final of the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro on Sunday.
The second stop on the 2014 Association of Surfing Professional's World Championship Tour, the Margies Pro attracted the biggest names in surfing to the iconic WA location for two weeks of action.
On Sunday, just eight of the men's top 34 remained going in to the quarter finals and all were fighting for glory, US$100,000 and the all-important 10,000 WCT points.
Bede Durbidge, Joel Parkinson and Josh Kerr were the three Australians remaining in contention heading into the quarter finals on Sunday and in heat one Bede Durbidge defeated South Africa's Jordy Smith.
Despite being renowned for his high scoring airs, Smith's heat didn't go his way and Queenslander Durbidge sealed victory with a some powerful surfing.
In the second heat Josh Kerr took on world number one and winner of the recent Rip Curl Pro on the Gold Coast Gabriel Medina as the swell increased and conditions improved.
Kerr was riding high after securing his quarter finals birth during a magnificent history-making round five at The Box, and did away with Medina to secure his semi final position.
Joel Parkinson was looking to re-write the history books, taking on Kelly Slater in their 15th finals position battle, of which Slater had won nine.
Slater looked to secure the quarter final with a few high scoring waves including a rare Margies barrel, but Parkinson fought back in the dying minutes to come within half a point of the 11 time world champion.
On the buzzer at the end of the heat Parkinson took off on a wave, copping a couple seconds in the tube before throwing a massive hacking turn and a big fins-out floater on to the Surgeon's Table in what would have been a high scoring wave.
Unfortunately the judges ruled he had not taken off by the time the buzzer sounded, and the wave did not count.
Parkinson could be seen venting his frustration in the ankle deep water over the reef before paddling in.
In the last quarter final heat, America's Nat Young took on Tahiti's Michel Bourez but was not able to match the raw power of the fluorescent green legs of the man they call the Spartan.
In the semi-finals the two remaining Australians, Josh Kerr and Bede Durbidge, faced off and put paid to any hopes spectators had of an all Australian finals race.
Durbidge put up a fantastic fight, but it was Kerr who scored highest and locked in the first birth in the finals.
It was then on Kelly Slater and Michel Bourez, and despite leading for the majority of the semi-final, Slater was upstaged by Bourez who threw down the third highest scoring wave of the entire event to find his way to the final.
Kerr received a rousing cheer from the majority Australian crowd as he made his way down the boardwalk and was mobbed as he approached the ocean by hundreds of supporters, but the adoring fans could not provide the inspiration he needed to win the final.
Bourez's fluorescent green legs had become notorious before the event had even started as he free-surfed two weeks ago, throwing some massive airs and dominating the steep faces of the right-hand Margaret River Point waves, and they are now synonymous with his victory at the event.
He was borne up the beach on the shoulders of supporters, claiming victory, 10,000 WCT points and $US100,000 prize money.
The WCT will now head to Victoria for the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.
