Ball, Duggan among top performers on opening day of Tahiti Nui Pro Junior
The latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Australasian Pro Junior Series event, Tahiti Nui Pro Junior, got done with the Round of 48 as well after completing the Round of 52 at the Papara in Tahiti on Wednesday, April 10, 2013.
16 more surfers successfully survived the round to make it through into the next round of the competition, where their task is expected to get even more tough.
With two-to-three foot waves breaking at the main event site, the young and determined surfing talent from around the globe seemed intent on using the opportunity to show the world what they were really capable of. The conditions were not the best, but that
hardly managed to keep the young talent at bay.
There were a number of good performances delivered during the course of the day, but the boasting rights for putting on the best performance of the day was snatched by Australia’s Kalani Ball, who managed to get his hands on a couple of big scores to eventually
register a winning heat total of 16.00 points during the very first heat of Round of 48.
He later admitted that he was struggling to get waves, but eventually changed his strategy a bit, which worked for him and got him the win.
Another Australia, Jack Duggan, managed to hold his hold despite being pitted against three local surfers. The conditions continued to be slow and consequently a bit troublesome, but he managed to find to decent waves to get to a heat-total of 13.50 points,
which turned out to be more than sufficient to seal the fate of the four-man battle in his favour.
“Papara is such a fun wave,” Duggan said. “It feels good to start the event with a good heat. I had a slow start, but I snagged a few and managed to get the win so I’m pretty happy. I love this place, we scored some great waves at Rangiroa last week, but
the reef is a bit dodgy. Now we’re in Tahiti and we’ve surfed some fun reefs and Papara is such a great little beachbreak!”
Other surfers who managed to register success in their Round of 48 heats included New Zealand’s Dune Kennings, and local talent O’Neil Massin.
There is still plenty of exciting action yet to come during the remaining rounds and heats of the Tahiti Nui Pro Junior.
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