Adam Robertson defeats Adam Melling to qualify for Saquarema Surf Pro International quarter-finals
Australia’s Adam Robertson qualified for the quarter-finals of the Saquarema Surf Pro International by getting a convincing win over his compatriot, Adam Melling, in round of 12’s third heat on Monday, May 30th, at Itauna beach in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
Both the Australians had shown a consistent form and perseverance over the last few days. Surfing had not been easy throughout the event and it had taken real skill and experience to survive the challenging conditions and give an acceptable performance at
the same time. Both, Robertson and Melling, had managed to not only hold their own over the last few days, they had come up with some really impressive surfing.
The two surfers met in their heat on Monday morning to compete for a spot in the next stage of the competition. Mother-nature, as usual, presented the surfers with her own set of challenges, namely stormy 8-10 foot waves, strong offshore winds and overcast
weather conditions. The conditions came as no surprise as there was hardly anyone who expected mother-nature to be any kinder.
As the heat kicked off, both the surfers did not waste any time to post their first scores. Melling caught the first wave and threw down a few decent tricks to get a score of 5.17 from it. Robertson, however, surfed his first wave better than his rival and
instantly took the lead by earning 6.00 points off it. He then struggled to catch another good wave for most of the heat, but eventually caught a really good one in the end. He surfed the wave exceptionally well, compelling the judges to give him a score of
7.17 for the impressive effort. This allowed Robertson to finish with a heat total of 13.17.
Melling kept on catching and surfing waves, but was not quite able to pull off anything impressive. He required 8.00 off his second wave to strip his rival off the lead, but the best he could come up with was 3.83 points. With a two-wave total of 9.00, he
was forced to surrender the victory to Robertson.
The success in the heat against Melling has confirmed Robertson’s place in the quarter-finals of the Saquarema Surf Pro International, the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event, presented by Coca Cola and Oakley.
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