Damien Hobgood defeats Josh Kerr to qualify for Round 4 at Volcom Fiji Pro – Surfing News
America’s Damien Hobgood confirmed his spot in the fourth round at Volcom Fiji Pro, the fourth of ten spots on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Series, after putting on an impressive performance to down Australia’s Josh
Kerr in the third heat of Round 3 that went down at the event venue of Restaurants in Tavarua, Fiji, on Saturday, June 9.
The highly-anticipated swell had arrived at the main venue of Cloudbreak, offering surfers exactly what they had been excited about. The massive waves offered plenty of action and thrill, but as it turned out, the event organisers were not willing to take
the risk of putting the competitors at the latest stop on the elite tour in such a massive swell. A short two-heat action at Cloudbreak on Friday was followed by the shifting of competition to the secondary site of Restaurants for the third and possibly fourth
round of the competition.
The waves at the alternate venue were nothing short of juicy either on Saturday, with draining four-to-six foot waves seemingly perfect to host a series of battles between the world’s surfing elite as they got sought to ensure their survival in the contention
for the event title.
The third heat of Round 3 saw Hobgood and Kerr take each other on in a man-on-man battle for the Round 4 spot, with the pressure of elimination hanging over their head. With very little room for error, an enthralling showdown was strongly anticipated.
As the battle got underway, Kerr got off to a promising start. He paddled towards an approaching set to catch a juicy wave, which allowed him to unleash his big-wave riding prowess and post a 7.33 on the score-board. Keeping the momentum going, he soon added
an additional 4.73 points to his account, thus moving to a heat-total of 12.06 points.
Hobgood got off to a modest start, taking his time to carefully adjust to the conditions on hand. Almost halfway the heat, he locked his first business-wave to earn a 6.50 off it. Requiring another big score to challenge his rival’s score, the American surfer
got hold of a juicy barrel and rode it deeply and cleanly to score a 7.23 for the effort. The resultant heat-total of 13.73 points resulted in a convincing victory for Hobgood, consequently carrying him through into the next round.
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