Dion Atkinson and Josh Kerr emerge triumphant in Round 1 of 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro
Australia’s Dion Atkinson and his compatriot Josh Kerr secured top honours in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro that went down at Margaret River in Australia on Tuesday, March 20.
The successful result in the opening round of the competition added both Atkinson and Kerr to the Round 2 (Round of 48) line-up. Brazil’s Jadson Andre and Australia’s Mark Occhilupo confirmed their place in second round as well after finishing in top-two in the seventh and eighth heat respectively.
With the top surfers from around the world converging to the event site for the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event, the crowd expected a heavy dose of thrilling action. The six-to-eight points on offer at the primary event site further created a stage that promised nothing short of an enthralling contest.
As the seventh heat got underway, Atkinson put his local knowledge of the waves to use and locked a couple of decent waves to score a 5.80 and 6.60 off them, finishing with a resultant heat-total of 12.40 points. The score held up throughout the course of the battle to seal the fate of the heat in his favour.
Andre advanced through into the next round as well after taking hold of runner-up place with his two-wave total of 10.17 points, which included a 5.50 and 4.67-point wave.
Brazil’s Charlie Brown finished in third place with a heat-total of 8.43 points, while France’s Vincent Duvignac rounded out the bottom position with a heat-total of 7.43 points. Both the surfers consequently got removed from the contention for the event title.
The eighth heat featured one of the most exciting battles of the day as Kerr battled it out with the 1999 ASP World Champion Occhilupo for top honours. The latter is not a regular in surfing competitions anymore, though he occasionally steps in to measure his skills against the newer generation of surfers.
As the eighth heat kicked-off, Kerr drew first blood with a 6.67-point wave and soon backed it up with an 8.33-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 15.00 points.
Occhilupo responded strongly, scoring an 8.00 off his first business-wave and added an additional 6.27 points to his account in the dying minutes of the heat to finish with a two-wave total of 14.27 points. The effort was a commendable one and kept him alive in the event after earning him runner-up place.
“I’ve always enjoyed surfing Margaret River,” Occhilupo said. “In the freesurf this morning I was just thinking, ‘wow’! My boards feel good, and I just felt like I was back in the old days. I was wanting to go right, but ended up going left more. Margarets is kind of like Bells for me, I can really open up on the wave faces and it suits my surfing. I’m stoked to be back.”
South Africa’s Shaun Joubert and Hawaii’s Kai Barger rounded out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 9.57 and 8.76 points respectively, consequently getting ejected from the competition.
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