CJ Hobgood collects victory in Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro New York – 2011 ASP World Tour
USA’s CJ Hobgood walked away with top honours from the eighth heat of Quiksilver Pro New York’s Round 1 that went down at the Long Beach in New York, on Tuesday, September 6.
He clinched the win by defeating Australia’s Bede Durbidge and Chris Davidson, who rounded out the second and third positions respectively, to secure his place in the third round. The two Australians were consequently relegated to Round 2.
The battle for the Round 3 spot turned out to be extremely intense between Hobgood and Durbidge as both the surfers adjusted exceptionally well to the conditions at Long Beach and made well use of the two-to-four foot waves on offer.
As the eighth heat kicked off, Durbidge instantly got down to business and locked a wave to open his account with 7.60 points. The local favourite, Hobgood, went through a series of waves before eventually putting 7.60 on the scoreboard as well.
However, Hobgood was immediately put under pressure once again by Durbidge through an impressive 8.17-point wave, which took his heat-total to 15.77 points. With the heat-clock ticking away, the American hunted desperately for an adequate response. Just
when it seemed as if he wasn’t going to make it through, Hobgood locked a wave to throw down a string of exquisite tricks, earning 8.37 points for the effort. Finishing with a heat-total of 15.97 points, the American walked away with the win, defeating Durbidge
by merely 0.20 points.
Commenting on the heat later on, Hobgood said, “I guess I've had one or two dramatic finishes in my career, but there's a lot on the line for me in this contest and I was feeling pretty frustrated out there for most of the heat. It had been lefts all day,
but there were a lot of rights in my heat and Bede [Durbidge] got some big scores off the bat. I needed a big score at the end and when that wave came through, I pretty much threw everything I had at it.”
The other Australian in the heat, Davidson, was overshadowed by the ongoing intense battle between his compatriot and Hobgood. Eventually, he had to settle for third place with a heat-total of 12.00 points, which included a 5.60 and 6.40-point wave.
Both Durbidge and Davidson failed to make their Round 1 heat count, but still remain alive in the race for the event-title for now. They now face a do-or-die situation in Round 2, where a win would send them to Round 3 and a loss would result in elimination
from the competition.
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