Adriano de Souza and Dusty Payne prevail in Round 3 of the Reef Hawaiian Pro
The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing continued to deliver the promised entertaining and exciting action at its first stop, the Reef Hawaiian Pro, as the Round of 64 (Round 3) remained active at the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on Tuesday afternoon, November
22. The ninth heat saw the Brazilian prodigy Adriano de Souza take on Australia’s Adam Robertson, America’s Luke Davis and Hawaii’s Sean Moody, while Hawaii’s Dusty Payne squared off with Australia’s Dion Atkinson, South Africa’s Shaun Joubert and New Zealand’s
Richard Christie in the tenth heat.
The ninth heat turned out to be a nail-biting contest as De Souza took an excellent come-from behind win in the dying minutes to push Robertson to second place and claim victory. Both the surfers, however, qualified for the Round of 32 (Round 4). Davis and
Moody got eliminated from the competition after rounding out the third and fourth positions respectively.
The tenth heat went down to the wire as Payne and Atkinson kept pushing hard for top honours. As the dust settled, it was Payne who managed to clinch the win, leaving his Australian rival to settle for runner-up place. The top-two finish carried both the
surfers into the next round. The third and fourth-place finish by Joubert and Christie respectively led to their premature ejection from the competition.
The 24-year-old De Souza found himself engaged in an intense battle with Robertson during the ninth heat for top honours. The Australia-based Robertson collected a 6.00-point wave in the opening minutes of the heat, though De Souza successfully managed to
come at par with him with a similar score.
As the heat progressed, both the surfers kept each other on the toes as the hunt for a decisive wave-score went on. In the final minutes of the heat, Robertson added a 6.67 to his account, taking his heat-total to 12.67 points and gained an advantage. However,
De Souza managed to turn the tables on him by scoring a decisive 7.60 off his final wave in the dying minutes of the heat to seal the fate of the contest in his favour.
Davis and Moody found themselves completely overshadowed by the ongoing battle between their two rivals in the four-man heat. As the heat concluded, Davis sat at a heat-total of 9.87 points, while Moody finished with a heat-total of 9.86 points. Their bottom-two
finish resulted in their elimination from the competition.
The tenth heat featured yet another nail-biting contest as Payne and Atkinson went hard at each other to reach out for top honours. As the heat kicked off, Atkinson took an early lead with a 7.00-point wave, though the 22-year-old Payne successfully managed
to reduce the lead by responding with a 6.50-point wave.
Atkinson widened the gap between him and the local surfer by scoring an impressive 7.77 off a wave right away, moving to a heat-total of 14.77 points. However, Payne managed to rise to the challenge and selected a wave mid-way through the heat to unleash
a string of exquisite tricks to collect send the crowd and judges in awe. The excellent effort earned him 8.40 points and took his heat-total to 14.90 points. Atkinson failed to improve on his existing heat-total and was eventually forced to concede victory
to his Hawaiian rival. Both the surfers did, however, advance through into the next round of the competition.
Joubert finished in third place after earning 12.70 points in total off his top-two waves. Christie conducted a desperate hunt for a couple of competitive scores, though to no avail. In his desperation, he got himself penalised for interference as well.
In the end, he finished with a disappointing heat-total of 5.15 points. Both Joubert and Christie got eliminated from the competition due to their Round 3 result.
For more updates on Round 3 of the Reef Hawaiian Pro, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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