Brent Dorrington wins the 6-Star O’Neill Coldwater Classic Scotland
The final of the 6-Star O’Neill Coldwater Classic (CWC) Scotland went down at the Thurso East reef in Scotland on Sunday, 17 April. In the low-scoring final, Australia’s Brent Dorrington defeated New Zealand’s Jay Quinn to clinch his maiden ASP Star Tour
victory and climb to the top in the O’Neill CWC Series overall rankings. Aside from the coveted O’Neill CWC Scotland Sword, he got to take home US$20,000 for his efforts. Tahiti’s Alain Riou and New Zealand’s Richard Christie finished in equal third place.
Thurso’s freezing waters have earned quite a reputation over the years. On the encouragement of his good friend and fellow competitor Romain Cloitre, Dorrington had decided to travel to Scotland to participate in the second stop of the O’Neill CWC Series.
The 24-year-old from Gold Coast showed good resilience throughout the event. However, he managed to exhibit an even better form on the last day. He found himself up against New Zealand’s 22-year-old Christie in the semi-final on Sunday. The contest was expected
to be a real nail-biter, but Dorrington contradicted the speculations. Within the first 10 minutes of the showdown, he managed to get two amazing waves to get a combined two-wave total score of 18.50 out of 20, against Christie’s 12.50. This score was the
highest of the entire event. The Australian’s performance in the semi-final was nothing short of complete domination.
On the other hand, the 27-year-old Quinn prevailed over his competitor, Tahiti’s 27-year-old Riou, in order to secure a place for himself in the final. The New Zealand-based surfer scored 11.17 against Riou’s 7.17.
The final battle took place in inconsistent 2-3 feet waves at Thurso East reef. The final had been postponed initially due to the low tide mark, but had resumed late afternoon.
The waves remained uncooperative for most part of the 35-minute final. However, the situation became relatively better during the last few minutes. Dorrington managed to catch two waves to score 9.00. Quinn on the other hand failed to find a decent score,
managing a 7.66 only. Thus, the fate of the contest had been sealed.
“I have never won a comp in my life so to be in a final and win it is truly amazing. I’m on top on the O’Neill Coldwater Classic Series now,” said an elated Dorrington. “l am looking for the bonus at the end of the series and the points from this contest
are really important to me. It has just pumped here this week and it has been the best waves I’ve had in a comp.”
The success at Scotland placed Dorrington ahead of Adam Melling, Joan Duru and Quinn on the CWC ratings. With the second stop now concluded, the O’Neill CWC Series will head off to Tofino, Canada, for its third round that is scheduled to run from October
15-21.
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