WORLD champion and current ASP world rankings leader Joel Parkinson barely had time to dwell on his loss to Kelly Slater in the tour opener at Kirra Point.

Jumping on a plane and heading West the day after the first WT final of the year, Parko travelled with his wife Monica and family to the prestigious big wave prime rated Drug Aware Margaret River pro starting today and running until tomorrow week.

Joel will be number one seed for Margs with his Coolangatta mate Mick Fanning, a semi-finalist at Kirra is number two seed.

Last year's winner John John Florence has been sidelined after the Hawaiian aerial specialist was injured at Snapper Rocks.

Despite not being a World Tour event counting towards this year's World Title, Margaret River has attracted most of the world rated top 34 surfers, although a noticeable absentee is none other than Kelly Slater.

But it seems the King will sit this one out and commit to the next WT event, the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach running from March 27- April 7.

The Surfline forecast is pointing at an Hawaiian size swell in the 20-feet range on the eve of the Drug Aware event, but by next week the surf will greatly decrease to a more manageable style for Surfers Point which is the venue of both the men's and women's competition.

In fact it is the first time in about 10 years Margaret River has upgraded the women's event to be part of the world title tour and counting towards this year's women's world title.

Lennox Heads' Tyler Wright is the current ratings leader from Sally Fitzgibbons (Gerroa, NSW) in second and five times current World Champion Stephanie Gilmore in third.

There's no doubt that Steph will be out to exact revenge at Margs and try and wrangle back the lead from her two younger NSW opponents.