Three Kiwi surfers took on world champions today (Wednesday 6th April) whilst competing at the Telstra Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River, Western Australia. Billy Stairmand (Rag), Richard Christie (Mah) and Paige Hareb (Tara) all progressed through their heats at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event which is playing host to the best surfers in the world.

Billy Stairmand (Rag) had the biggest challenge of the day surfing against ten times and defending ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA).

Stairmand led the four man heat for 25 minutes before Slater made a late charge to jump into the lead and eventually win the heat. Slater scored 12.36 to Stairmand's 12.0 points, the two surfers moving through to the Round of 48.

It is the young Raglan surfer's biggest match up in his short career. Before leaving for Australia, Stairmand knew that he was up against Slater and was understood to be blown away by the opportunity. He will now face Damien Hobgood (USA), Jay Thompson (AUS) and Tom Whitaker (AUS) in the next round.

Richard Christie (Mah) had a big challenge up against two time (2007, 2009) ASP World Champion Mick Fanning (AUS). Christie also had success moving through to the next round beside Fanning who led from start to finish. Christie found himself in third late in the heat before completing a big aerial manoeuvre and score 7.17 to jump into second.

The two surfers are likely to contest their next matchups tomorrow (Thursday 7th April) in what forecasters are calling a massive swell in the 15ft range which has everyone scrambling to find big boards to surf on.

Paige Hareb (Tara) was the third New Zealand surfer in action moving through to the final eight surfers of the women's division today and in doing so beat 2010 International Surfing Association (ISA) World Champion Chelsea Hedges (Aus). Hareb placed second to Rebecca Woods (Aus) in her heat and will now contest a head-to-head match up against Courtney Conlogue (USA).

Coincidentally Hareb finished second to Hedges at the ISA World Surfing Games in 2010 in a last minute win that prevented the New Zealand Surfing Team from gaining its first ever gold medal at the event.

The $285,000 USD event runs through to Sunday.