Dion Atkinson, Jay Quinn and David do Carmo qualify for Round 2 at Mr Price Pro Ballito
Australia’s Dion Atkinson, New Zealand’s Jay Quinn and Brazil’s David do Carmo emerged triumphant in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito that continued at the Willard Beach
in KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Thursday, July 5.
America’s Nat Young, South Africa’s Greg Emslie and New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand successfully made their way through into the second round (Round of 48) as well after securing second-place finish in their respective Round 1 heats.
The one-metre waves breaking at the primary event site on Thursday morning seemed like an ideal canvas for the local and international surfers to put on an exciting show as they battled it out for survival.
The 19th heat featured a phenomenal performance by Atkinson as he got the better for his rival in the four-man battle. The Australian surfer collected a couple of eight-point rides to finish with a heat-total of 16.23 points, which kept him well
ahead of his rivals’ reach on the scoreboard.
“It was a good heat, there were plenty of waves and Nat and I were lucky enough to start off really strong,” Atkinson said. “I knew all the guys could get the scores required so I tried to build my momentum and luckily I got a couple in the first ten minutes
that proved the difference and I got through.”
Young was nothing short of impressive during the course of the battle either and successfully secured runner-up place through a heat-total of 14.83 points.
Brazil’s Messias Felix and South Africa’s Brandon Jackson failed to make the Round 2 cut after finishing with a heat-total of 11.57 and 5.77 points respectively.
The 20th heat saw Quinn put on an impressive performance to eventually finish with a heat-total of 15.00 points, which served to seal the fate of the four-man battle in his favour.
Event wildcard Emslie did pretty good to finish ahead of France’s Adrien Toyon and America’s CJ Hobgood in runner-up place with a heat-total of 13.73 points, thus advancing through into the next round. The French and American surfer got eliminated after
finishing with a heat-total of 13.24 and 9.77 points respectively.
“I’d never seen Adrian surf before but I knew CJ could pull it off at anytime so I just tried to pull any card and it seemed to work,” stated Emslie after the heat.
Do Carmo barely managed to get his hands on victory in the 21st heat after finishing with a heat-total of 11.16 points, 0.03 points ahead of second-planer finisher Stairmand. Both the surfers did go through into the next round though.
Australia’s Matt Wilkinson finished in third place with a heat-total of 10.63 points, while America’s Luke Davis finished fourth with a two-wave total of 10.26 points. Both the surfers were consequently eliminated from the competition.
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