Coco Ho and Paige Hareb move into Nike US Open of Surfing quarter-finals
Hawaii’s Coco Ho and New Zealand’s Paige Hareb successfully made their way into the quarter-finals at the Nike US Open of Surfing, the final stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Championship Tour, after claiming victory
in their respective Round 4 heats that went down at the Huntington Beach in California, America, on Thursday, August 2.
Ho got the better of Australia’s Laura Enever in the third heat to make her way through into the next stage of the competition, while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
The fourth heat saw France’s Pauline Ado succumb to Hareb, consequently getting eliminated from the competition while sending her rival into the quarter-finals.
With two-to-three foot waves on offer at the primary event site, the elite ASP female surfers had a handful of potent scoring opportunities on hand to put their exquisite surfing prowess on display.
The third heat saw Ho and Enever take each other on in a one-on-one fight for a place in the quarter-finals. Both the surfers had failed to make much of an impact during their Round 3 heats and thus were forced to take the long road. The pressure prevailing
in the heat was high as there was a lot at stake.
As the battle got underway, both the surfers got off to a slow start, taking their time to find their rhythm and getting used to the conditions. Ho soon broke free of the shackles after locking her first business-wave to post a 4.00 on the score-board. She
followed it up with an impressive 8.00-point, which took her to a heat-total of 12.00 points.
Enever registered a 4.83-point wave half-way through the heat and only managed to back it up a 1.17 off her second business-wave, thus finishing with a heat-total of 6.00 points. The lacklustre performance and a bit of hard luck led her to concede victory
to her Hawaiian rival.
The fourth heat featured a much more intense showdown as both Hareb and Ado fought tooth-and-nail to get their hands on the last-remaining quarter-final spot on offer.
The Kiwi surfer appeared pretty charged-up and wasted very little time to put her rival under pressure with a 7.50 off her first business-wave. Ado responded with a 6.83-point ride, keeping the contest very much alive and later added an additional 6.93 points
to her account to move to a heat-total of 13.76 points.
In the dying minutes of the heat, Hareb locked a juicy wave to unleash a series powerful turns, adding a 7.37 to her account and thus moving to a heat-total of 14.87 points. The last-minute effort served to seal the fate of the battle in her favour, taking
her through into the quarter-finals.
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