Damien Hobgood triumphs over Yadin Nicol in the final of Telstra Drug Aware Pro
The final of the Prime-rated Telstra Drug Aware Pro took place today, 9
April, at the Margaret River in West Australia. The final show-down was completely dominated by Damien Hobgood from Florida, America.
The Floridian surfer comfortably prevailed over his rival, Australia’s Yadin Nicol, to secure his fifth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour win. Nicol, who was participating in his first ever final, ended the event at runner-up position.
Brazil’s William Cardoso and America’s Granger Larsen finished with a tie for third place.
After an event that featured one intense battle after another over the last few days, the finale failed to carry on the momentum of delivering the adrenaline-pumping action and nail-biting contest. Instead, it turned out to be rather one-sided since the
very beginning with seemingly no real effort from the local, Nicol, to make a strong impact.
Since the heavy-weights of surfing, such as America’s Kelly Slater, Australia’s Mick Fanning and Taj Burrow, were already eliminated from the competition, the opportunity was there for Hobgood to capitalise on and take home a win.
As the final started, the 31-year-old American got to business right away. He managed to catch two decent waves very early in the contest, impressing the judges to secure a score of 12.83. Nicol on the other hand failed to retaliate effectively and ended
up with a 6.94.
Commenting on the final in a post-final interview, Hobgood said, “It wasn't really much of a final. I'm sure Yadin is bummed. It would have been great to battle it out. I saw that it was getting smaller and just wanted to go out and get some scores under
my belt. I stuck to my game plan and it worked.”
Nicol, however, did not beat himself over his failure to pose a serious threat to Hobgood at all during the final. He said that he kept on waiting for the big waves to come, but they never came. It seemed as if mother-nature was not in a mood to show any
generosity to the local.
The victory at Margaret River has earned Hobgood a prize-money of US$40,000 and 6500 priceless rating points for his feat, which have moved him to 10th position on the ASP World Rankings.
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