American surfers shine on day 2 of ASP 4-Star Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco
America’s Brett Barley, Michael Velasco and Evan Thompson advanced through into the third round (Round of 64) of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco after claiming top honours in their respective Round 2 (Round
of 96) heats that went down at Playa Revolcadero in Acapulco, Mexico, on Wednesday, July 18.
Mexico’s Dylan Southworth, his fellow countryperson Adrian Rodriguez and America’s Nic Hdez successfully made the Round 3 cut as well after securing runner-up positions in their respective heats.
With clean two-to-four foot waves on offer at the primary event site, the second day of the competition was expected to be pretty entertaining. Some of the best up-and-coming talent from around the globe were in contention for the event title, determined
to get their hands on the handsome prize cheque along with coveted ASP ranking points.
The action resumed at Playa Revolcadero with the fifth heat of Round 2, which pitted Barley against Southworth and his fellow Mexicans Sasha Donnanno and Jose Jimenez.
It turned out to be a low scoring affair with all four surfers struggling to get their hands on a high-scoring ride. In the end, Barley stood victorious with a two-wave total of 10.10 points, while Southworth claimed runner-up place with a heat-total of
8.13 points, thus accompanying the winner into the next round.
Donnanno and Jimenez finished with a heat-total of 7.93 and 4.80 points respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The sixth heat featured yet another low-scoring heat, which concluded with Velasco emerging triumphant with a heat-total of 9.23 points, while Rodriguez had to settle for second-place finish with a heat-total of 5.80 points.
Venezuela’s Giovani Benitez finished in third place with a heat-total of 5.63 points, while Hawaii’s Schuyler Allen finished fourth. The bottom-two finish led to the ejection of the two surfers from the competition field.
Thompson put on an exquisite performance in the seventh heat of Round 2 to claim a comprehensive victory over Hdez, Mexico’s David Rutherford and Hawaii’s Kalani David.
The Florida-based surfer got off to a modest start, but gradually built momentum to eventually post an 8.17 on the score-board. He backed it up with a 5.93-point ride, thus finishing with a resultant heat-total of 14.10 points. The effort remained unbeatable
until the end to see him through to victory.
“I figured it was kind of slow and there are a lot of close outs, so my game plan was to just catch waves that weren’t closing out and do as many turns as I could,” Thompson said. “Finally I got lucky with that little barrel and I figured if I could make
that it’d be a pretty good score.”
Hdez accompanied his compatriot into the next round after finishing with a heat-total of 8.17 points, whereas Rutherford and David rounded out the bottom-two position with a two-wave total of 5.87 and 5.30 points respectively, thus getting eliminated from
the competition.
The thrilling surfing action continued at Playa Revolcadero with the remaining heats of Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco.
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