Why did you ask him to compare two different sea surface trends in response? (climateaudit.org)
But the global surface trend is calculated not by taking the average temperature, but by taking the average change in temperature for all stations each year. (wattsupwiththat.com)
So the tropical (30N - 30S) surface warming is less than the global surface trend of about 0.17 C / decade — but again, apparently still enough to have substantial effects on tropical glaciers. (realclimate.org)