The past three events have been headlined by an historic exchange between Slater and 21-year-old Wright.

The two have made the last three consecutive finals, an ASP first, and with only two events remaining have ignited one of the greatest world title races in recent years.

"I've always known Owen (Wright) to be building up and building up," Slater said.

"By the way people talk, I'm stoked to still be standing. These young guys are incredible ... when I was younger, I was always looking up to the older guys and now I'm looking to the younger guys to see what kind of lines they're taking."

Slater cruised into round four with the highest score of the day.

Strong winds and unruly surf scratched the two previous days of competition, providing a lot more resistance than Slater's round-three opponent, Ramzi Boukhiam.

After some more challenging conditions, clean 1-1.5m waves finally greeted 39-year-old Slater, who outclassed Boukhiam to post the day's best total score of 16.90, out of a possible 20.

"I was nervous before the heat because there have been a few that have been slow and guys haven't been getting waves," Slater said.

"I started loosening up there at the end. With the tide changing, I was somewhat confident that the lefts would begin offering better scoring opportunities and that's where I got my two best waves."

World No.2 Wright made light work of Portugal's Tiago Pires in the final heat of round three, smashing a 7.00 and an 8.17 in the opening minutes.

Australian Adrian Buchan, who knocked out American Patrick Gudauskas, will have the unenviable job of stoping Slater in heat No.3 of round four when competition resumes.

Australia contributed four of the competition's final 12 surfers with Julian Wilson and Taj Burrow also into round four, however defending Quiksilver Pro France champion Mick Fanning was eliminated by American Taylor Knox in a low-scoring affair.