Bede Durbidge secures a place in Billabong Rio Pro quarter-finals by beating Raoni Monteiro
Australia’s Bede Durbidge overcame Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro in the third heat of the fifth round of the men’s Billabong Rio Pro. The third stop of 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s World Tour, took place on Friday morning, May 20th,
at Barra Da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Plagued by unsuitable surfing conditions, men’s Billabong Rio Pro was unable to kick-off on its original starting date of May 11th. After a delay of six days, the event organisers eventually gave in and shifted the competition to the Arpoador
beach resort for the first and second round. However, they returned back to Barra Da Tijuca once the conditioned showed some improvement. The decision to return did not turn out to be a bad one as the third and fourth round went down on Thursday without any
issues. However, the challenging conditions returned on Friday. There were only two-to-three waves breaking at the beach. The event organisers still allowed the competition to continue, apparently not expecting mother-nature to bless the event with any better
conditions in the following days.
The battle between Durbidge and Monteiro went down under such testing conditions. Both the surfers utilised their experience to catch relatively better waves to pull off their skilful manoeuvres.
The 28-year-old Australian surfer ended up adjusting to the conditions better than his Brazilian rival, even though the Rio de Janeiro local had an advantage of competing in his own backyard, along with the presence of the massive Brazilian crowd who were
passionately supporting him.
Monteiro ended the heat with a two-wave score of 12.67. Durbidge edged past the Brazilian by earning 13.43 to seal the fate of the heat.
After recalling the Brazilian surfer’s performance in the fourth round, the result on Friday came as no surprise. Even though both Monteiro and Durbidge had failed to make a strong impact in the previous round, the Australian had at least shown some determination
and passion. That was missing from the Brazilian’s surfing and it continued to remain missing in what ended up as his last heat of the men’s Billabong Rio Pro.
The victory confirmed the Australian’s place in the quarter-final, while marking the end of the road for the 28-year-old Brazilian.
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