BRAZILIAN Adriano de Souza has been crowned the 2015 Drug Aware Margaret River Pro men’s champion and the new world number one.
The 28-year-old was impressive in out-surfing John John Florence in the final with a 0.66 point victory.
De Souza has been in great form in 2015 with a third place finish at the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast and second in the Rip Curl Pro at Bell’s Beach.
On day one, de Souza placed second in his three man heat after Sebastian Zietz dropped a 9.23 wave.
An impressive 9.80 wave handed de Souza victory over countryman Alejo Muniz in round two.
De Souza claimed a round three win over New Zealander Ricardo Christie before a surprise last place finish in a three man heat of round four.
Surfing to survive in round five, de Souza posted a 6.50 and an 8.33 to defeat Australian Josh Kerr.
In the quarterfinals, de Souza pulled out two high scoring waves and as hard as he tried, Kelly Slater could not catch up.
The second semi-final saw de Souza pitted up against hometown hero Taj Burrow.
Burrow drew first blood with a big left hander to score 7.50.
A 5.77 on his third wave gave the local boy a 13.27 lead before de Souza dropped in a 7.03 and a 6.63 in the latter stages of the contest to claim victory by 0.39.
In the final de Souza was pitted against Hawaiian John John Florence.
He took the early lead with a 8.93 bomb. Florence caught the very next wave but the judges only awarded him a 7.00 when he was dumped after two solid turns.
For ten minutes the surfers sat and watched the sea roll past before Florence dropped in a 7.87, again turning sharply but failing to stick the exit.
De Souza kept his cool and picking a great wave, rode an 8.60 to give him a 17.53 total from his first two waves.
Using the jet-ski to get further away from the coast, John John Florence rode in a 9.00 to bridge the gap to 0.56 points.
Florence threw everything he had at the waves in the last few minutes of the competition but he just could not get a big enough wave.
"I just beat the best surfer on the planet," de Souza said.
"I came here really motivated after losing the final at Bells and it is such an honour to put my name on the winner's list.
"John John is one of the most crazy talents we have on the tour.
"I feel I have improved and the hard work is paying off."
The win is de Souza’s fifth tour victory and will see him leave Australia as the top ranked male surfer in the world.