Another lay day called for men’s Billabong Rio Pro on Monday - Surfing News
The third stop of the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s World Tour, Billabong Rio Pro, was unable to get underway on Monday, May 16th, at the Barra Da Tijuca in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, due to unsuitable conditions.
The primary event site has been plagued by inappropriate conditions for over a week, forcing the event organisers to call one lay day after another. Where the competition was scheduled to kick off on the 11th, the event is yet start even after
six days of waiting period.
In the previous days, the event had to be delayed because of low tides that were inadequate for the ASP Men’s contest. Monday though, brought intense onshore winds and stormy conditions prevailing at Barra Da Tijuca.
However, according to the forecasts, the weather and surf conditions are expected to improve by Tuesday and round one of the contest may be able to get underway. Talking to the media, the ASP International Head Judge Richie Porta said, “Unfortunately we’ve
got bad winds are definitely not running today. The good news is we’ve got swell on the rise and conditions have been forecasted to improve and we’re looking to get things started tomorrow.”
Even though the Men’s competition is yet to start, the event allowed the Women’s Billabong Rio Pro competition to commence under the challenging conditions over last week. The event featured the top female surfers in the world competing in numerous intense
battles while besting the difficult conditions.
It took the competition two days to get done with all the heats and decide the winner. While good performances were seen by the four-time reigning ASP World Champion Stephanie Gilmore and Australia’s in-form Sally Fitzgibbons, it was Hawaii’s Carissa Moore
who walked away with her third victory of the season to further cement her place at the top of the season standings.
Moore does, however, need to watch out of Fitzgibbons who has already bagged two victories and is the only surfer in contention for the World title besides her.
The event organisers will convene at 7:00 am on Tuesday morning to reassess the conditions at Barra Da Tijuca and make a call for a possible start to Men’s Rio Pro competition.
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