After taking the trophy at the Quicksilver Pro at Snapper last week, the question now is: will bell ring for the tour\u2019s resident class clown?
\nByron Bay\u2019s Matt Wilkinson clinched his first WSL Championship Tour victory last week, proving he\u2019s finally serious about winning the world title after almost failing to requalify for the CT a few years ago.
\n\u201cI was hoping to make it in the top five THE WILL TO WIN or 10 this year, and I have been at the back end of the teens for the last few years, so this is a different start,\u201d Wilkinson said.
\n\u201cI feel like I have matured a lot in my heat surfing and in my surfing in general.
\nHopefully I can put a lot of heats together this year and win the title.\u201d
\nWilkinson has hired friend and former CT competitor Glenn Hall as a coach and the move appears to be paying dividends.
\n\u201cWilko had a reality check since he almost fell off tour and he knows he\u2019s a lot better than that and obviously I do too,\u201d Hall said.
\n\u201cI had a little chat with him and told him, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re better than that.\u2019 He thought it was probably a good time to change his ways.\u201d
\nThe goofy-footer unleashed a variety of technical manoeuvres at Snapper to take his win, dispatching reigning World Champion Adriano De Souza and last year\u2019s event winner, Filipe Toledo.
\nWilkinson won the event 14.22 to 13.66.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After taking the trophy at the Quicksilver Pro at Snapper last week, the question now is: will bell ring for the tour\u2019s resident class clown? Byron Bay\u2019s Matt Wilkinson clinched his first WSL Championship Tour victory last week, proving he\u2019s finally serious about winning the world title after almost failing to requalify for the CT […]<\/p>\n