Bobby Martinez eliminates Damien Hobgood in fifth round of Billabong Rio Pro
The fifth round of Men’s Billabong Rio Pro kicked off with America’s Bobby Martinez facing his compatriot, Damien Hobgood, in the first heat of Friday, May 20th, at Barra Da Tijuca in Rio da Janeiro, Brazil.
While both surfers put up a determined fight, it was Martinez who eventually walked away a winner, consequently securing a place in the quarter-final.
The conditions at the primary event site turned out to be as challenging as they had been a couple of days ago. The five-foot tides were replaced by two-to-three foot tides which hardly offered anything to the surfers to work with.
Similar conditions had initially forced the event organisers to call six consecutive lay days for the event, later shifting to Arpoador beach resort for the first two round of the event. However, an improvement in conditions at Barra Da Tijuca had convinced
the organisers to return to the site for the remaining rounds of the competition. While Thursday had offered relatively suitable conditions, Friday again presented the surfers with a challenge. However, this time the event organisers decided against putting
the competition on hold and continued with the remaining rounds.
Facing each other in such conditions, both Martinez and Hobgood had a tough job on their hands. They not only had to worry about each other, but also put in an extra effort to adjust to the conditions.
The 26-year-old Martinez locked two better-looking waves to throw down a set of turns while remaining stylish to end up with a total score of 14.60. Hobgood, on the other hand, found it a little harder to adjust to the low tides and could only manage a 12.63
in an attempt to surpass his rival. The inadequate score by Hobgood confirmed Martinez as the winner, confirming his place in the quarter-finals.
The defeat in the fifth round of Men’s Billabong Rio Pro, 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s World Tour event, marked the end of the road for Hobgood in the competition. While he had remained impressive over the last couple of days, failure
to deliver in the opening heat of Friday put all his previous days’ efforts to waste. Consistency is vital to achieve success and that was missing from Hobgood in Rio de Janeiro.
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