Billy Stairmand and Adrian Buchan advance to Australian Open of Surfing Quarter-finals
New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand and Australia’s Adrian Buchan continued their excellent run of form at Manly Beach in New South Wales, Australia, to secure their place in the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Australian Open of Surfing Quarter-finals
on Saturday, February 18.
The light on-shore winds and two-foot waves on offer at the primary event site kept the surfers on their toes throughout their 25-minute heats as they competed for the limited opportunities to earn a competitive score.
The third heat of Round 5 (Round of 16) saw Stairmand square off with Australia’s Mitch Crews in a battle for the Quarter-final spot. Both the surfers had been displaying promising forms over the last few days of the competition and it seemed that an exciting
battle was at hand.
As the contest got underway, the Kiwi took an early lead with a 4.90 off his first business wave. However, Crews managed to edge past him halfway through the heat with a 5.33-point wave.
As the heat progressed, the Australian extended his lead even further with a 6.43 off his second business-wave in the final minutes. Stairmand made one desperate effort on a left-hander in the dying minutes of the heat and managed to collect an 8.77 off
it to get to a heat-total of 13.67 points, 1.91 ahead of his rival’s, to claim victory.
“I started off slow and I heard that Mitch [Crews] was getting some good scores down the beach, so I was lucky to get that good left at the end and get through the heat,” Stairmand said. “I'm just stoked to start the year off good, this event is close to
home and I'm having a great time.”
The fourth heat saw Buchan and fellow countryman Adam Melling face-off for survival. Breaking the trend of top seeds getting ejected from the contention for the event title, Buchan successfully made it through to the next stage of the competition after getting
the better of Melling with his powerful aerials and rails. Scoring a 7.00 off his first business-wave and backing it up with a 7.83-point wave, he finished with a decisive heat-total of 14.83 points against his compatriot’s heat-total of 11.20 points.
“That was a good heat, it was a good test for me,” Buchan said. “Adam [Melling] looked really strong at this event, he's been working hard over the last few months so it's good to win that one.”
Stairmand and Buchan will go against each other in the Australian Open of Surfing Quarter-finals on Sunday.
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