Adrian Buchan collects a convincing Round 1 win at Quiksilver Pro France – 2011 ASP World Tour
The exciting action continued at the renowned beach-break of La Graviere in France on Wednesday, October 5, as Australia’s Adrian Buchan took on his compatriot Daniel Ross in the 10th heat of the Quiksilver Pro France’s Round 1.
The battle turned out to be completely one-sided, with Buchan walking away with a comfortable victory to secure his place in Round 3. Ross rounded out the runner-up place, which resulted in his relegation to the second round. Also getting pushed to Round
2 was Brazil’s Heitor Alves, who failed to show up for the heat.
The 29-year-old Buchan had been pretty inconsistent during the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour. There had been some events in which he had made a really strong impact and then there were events where he just didn’t seem to cut
it. Despite the regular fluctuations in his performance, he was currently sitting at the No. 12 spot in the ASP World Title Rankings.
Coming to France for the eighth stop of the ASP World Tour, Buchan was well aware of the importance of securing a successful result in order to keep his chances of clinching the ASP World Title alive. A good start to the competition was essential for the
Australian to gain the confidence needed to hold his own while facing the best surfers from all around the globe.
As the 10th heat of Round 1 got underway, Buchan got off to a decent start, locking a wave quite early in the battle to post a 5.33 on the score-board. The six-to-seven foot waves kept troubling him as they had been nagging those before him earlier
in the day, making the hunt for another decent score lengthy and seemingly futile. However, he eventually managed to score a 5.93 off his second business-wave in the final minutes of the 30-minute heat and got to a heat-total of 11.26 points.
The demanding surfing conditions got the better of Ross as he evidently succumbed to them completely and failed to collect a single good score. Going through a series of waves, he only managed to collect 3.73 points off his first business-wave. Ross realised
that the score was not sufficient under the circumstances and needed a big score off his second business-wave to have some sort of a chance at victory. Getting desperate with every passing minute, Ross eventually lost his concentration and got marked for interference
on the final wave, which resulted in a penalty in form of point deduction. This caused him to finish in second place with a heat-total of 5.40 points.
Alves remained absent from his heat on the opening day of Quiksilver Pro France due to an injury sustained during the third round of Billabong Azores Islands Pro in Portugal. While he was hopeful that the injury won’t take much time to heal, the recovery
process took longer than he had expected. This caused him to miss his Round 1 heat at the latest stop of the ASP World Tour, though he still has an opportunity to get back in the race for the event title by competing and collecting a win in Round 2.
For more updates on Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro France, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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