Is KS really that much better than the rest on tour?
No dought he is one hell of a surfer, but is he that good?

Not so hard to accept, is it? Look at Pete Sampras then Roger Federer in the Tennis world, or Robbie Naish in the Windsurfing world. Pro sports often have their "freaks" - freaks being someone really good at what they do for a long time doing it. I think it becomes a bit psychological too, they expect to win and other competitors expect it too - gives them a edge.

Cheers.

Too true about the psychological 'edge', if you think that someone will beat you they do (negative re-inforcement), but if you think you'll beat someone, you do (positive re-inforcement), so KS has both sides of the re-inforcement going.

I used to do alot of running. I could never beat this one dude over any race 100m - 3K, but once I beat him once at one event, he never beat me again at it. Then slowly I knocked him off at each of the other events, not due to any more training, but I knew I was better, so i'd win.

Enough of me, but that was an example for sports psyche. Shame I can't surf like that, haha