Slater Shows Up Late, Advances Anyway : Surfing: After missing a minute due to a scheduling error, he wins third-round heat at the Op Pro.

Kelly Slater punched the time clock a little late Wednesday. But that didn’t keep him from doing his job--winning his third-round heat at the Op Pro surfing championships.

Slater, the reigning world champion from Cocoa Beach, Fla., surfed only six waves but advanced to today’s fourth round with a 24.1 total on four scoring waves.

Newport Beach’s Richie Collins, slowed by a sore back, advanced with a second-place score of 22.39. Collins, the 1989 Op champion, held off third-place Mark Bannister of Australia by scoring a 7.73 on his ninth wave with about three minutes left in his 20-minute heat.

And if anyone was keeping a close eye on his watch during the heat, it was Slater.

A scheduling error by contest officials made him a minute late for the start. The official schedule had Slater surfing at 2:40 p.m., but his heat started about 1:50 p.m.

“The schedule was wrong,” Slater said. “I shouldn’t put the blame on anyone else, but there was an hour added on (the original schedule).”

Announcers paged Slater repeatedly in the minutes preceding the heat, but he didn’t reach the lineup until three minutes were gone. Slater said he didn’t know he was being paged.

“I was walking up there (contest site) and I realized I had forgot my entry fee,” Slater said. “Bree (his girlfriend) went back and got it, or else I would have missed the first 10 minutes of my heat.

“I thought the announcers were calling someone else. I didn’t realize it was me until I got to where the (competition) jerseys are.”

Joe Adams, Op contest coordinator, said world-tour officials posted an updated schedule on Tuesday, although several incorrect schedules were floating around the contest site.

By the time Slater reached the lineup, Collins had already caught three waves and had an 11-point lead.

“I wasn’t worried because nobody had caught a good wave yet,” Slater said.

He easily erased the deficit, scoring a 4.83 on his first wave with 13 minutes remaining, then followed with a 5.1, 5.5, 8.0, 3.83 and 5.5. He moved into second place on his third ride and took the lead for good with the 8.0 wave, which featured three snapping moves off the wave’s lip from his backside.

“I wasn’t panicked,” Slater said. “I don’t panic until the end. If I need to, I can catch four waves in 10 minutes.”

Slater’s big wave left Collins and Bannister fighting for second. Bannister briefly took the lead with 3 minutes 50 seconds left, but Collins had two big moves to score a 7.73 and qualify for the next round. Laguna Niguel’s Jason Haughey, who advanced out of the trials, finished fourth at 14.27.

What did Collins think of Slater’s late arrival?

“I was already in the water,” Collins said, “so I could care less. I knew he was here.”

Collins considered himself fortunate just to compete, let alone advance. He said he snapped his back surfing in Newport Beach Tuesday and needed treatment from a Newport Beach chiropractor before he could surf Wednesday.

The remaining 11 third-round heats will be completed today.

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Add Slater: The world champion underwent minor arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in May, but his injury appears to be more serious than originally thought.

Slater surfed with a brace on his knee and favored it slightly as he walked off the beach Wednesday.

“It’s not real good,” he said of the knee. “I’m in quite a bit of pain. I dislocated a piece of bone two years ago and it never healed. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t like talking about it.”

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Tag-team competition: Who says Hawaiians can’t win in small surf?

Wednesday’s three- to four-foot waves did little to keep Team Hawaii’s big-wave riders from winning the first day of the tag-team competition.

Hawaii, third in last year’s team competition, got two strong waves from Sunny Garcia to win with 91.85 points.

Australia, last year’s runner-up to Team USA, was second with 80.73. Scores from three days of tag-team surfing will be added to determine the two finalists for Saturday.

Team USA originally finished second with 84 points, but slipped to fourth after five points were deducted for an interference call on San Clemente’s Dino Andino.

It was a tough day for Andino, who fell on all three team waves and was eliminated in the second round of the men’s main event.

Other results: Huntington Beach’s Kirk Tice, one of a handful of Orange County surfers who advanced out of the trials, reached the third round with a second-place finish.

He’s in one of the round’s toughest heats with San Clemente’s Mike Parsons, Laguna Beach’s Jeff Booth and England’s Martin Potter.

Huntington Beach’s Noah Budroe, Costa Mesa’s Todd Miller and Donovan Frankenreiter of Mission Viejo also advanced.

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Surf report: According to Surfline-Wavetrak, a northwest wind swell has dropped south of the pier but will continue to create peaky waves with good shape. A swell off the coast of South America is expected to arrive sometime Saturday afternoon. Waves are two to three feet with occasional four-foot sets.

Op Notes

Competition resumes at 7 a.m. today with the final 11 men’s third-round heats, followed by five fourth-round heats. The tag-team competition begins at 3 p.m. Among the surfers scheduled to compete are San Clemente’s Shane Beschen, Hawaii’s Sunny Garcia, Laguna Beach’s Jeff Booth, Seal Beach’s Marty Thomas, Hawaii’s Derek Ho, San Juan Capistrano’s Shane Stoneman and Australia’s Barton Lynch, the 1991 Op champion.