Damien Hobgood and Nat Young through to next round: First round of Super Surf International – Part 7
Fans anticipated some exciting surfing action at Praia da Vila in Santa Catarina, Brazil, on Tuesday, and they were surely not disappointed. The first round of Super Surf International featured one thrilling contest after another as the surfers, both foreign
and local, kept on putting up remarkable performances to secure a place in the second round of the competition.
As the day progressed, the tides kept on getting wilder due to the strong offshore winds and it became increasingly difficult for the surfers to ride the waves. However, the testing conditions were not able to deter the spirits of the determined surfers.
The round of 96 reached the 13th heat, where America’s Damien Hobgood faced off against his compatriot Austin Ware, Brazil’s Ian Gouveia and Hawaii’s John John Florence.
It turned out to be a one man show as Hobgood dominated the heat with his outstanding performance. Locking a wave early in the heat, he pulled off a set of impressive tricks to earn 7.50 points. He followed it up with an even more impressive second wave,
earning 8.57 off it and finish with a total score of 16.07. The score proved to out of his rivals’ reach and he ended up qualifying for the next round quite comfortably.
Ware, Gouveia and Florence, all put up a determined fight, but their efforts remained futile. Ware, however, got the second best score of the heat, 12.60, and extended his life in the competition by qualifying for the round of 48. Gouveia and Florence rounded
out the bottom two positions after finishing with a heat total of 12.00 and 11.70 respectively. Though their performance was not disappointing when taking the surfing conditions into account, both of them are no longer in contention for the event title.
In the 14th heat, America’s blossoming surfing talent, Nat Young, was pitted against the French surfers Maxime Huscenot and Tim Boal, as well as Brazil’s Simao Romao.
The contest turned out to be pretty intense between Young and Huscenot, but the American managed to clinch the win after scoring 6.43 points off his first wave and 8.47 off his second in the middle stages of the game. Huscenot responded with a 7.40 first
wave and 5.70 second wave and had to settle for runner-up position after ending with a deficit of 1.80 points.
Romao finished in third place with a two-wave score of 12.70, missing out on a place in the next round by a deficit of 0.30 points. Romao’s performance was nothing to write home about. He finished in fourth place after scoring merely 6.60p in total from
his two waves. Both of them have been eliminated from the competition.
For more updates on Super Surf International, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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