Dylan Graves and Richard Christie advance to next round: Third round of Super Surf International – Part 4
Saturday continued to deliver intense surfing contests to the fans at Praia da Vila beach in Santa Catarina, Brazil.
The previous 9 heats had already eliminated 9 surfers from the competition, while the same number of surfers had qualified to the round of 12. The heats were taking place with un-ideal surfing conditions prevailing at the site, bringing the skills and experience
of the surfers into play.
The 10th heat saw Puerto Rico’s Dylan Graves take on Brazil’s Leonardo Neves for the coveted place in the next round. Both the surfers had reached this point after prevailing in a couple of heats and neither of them had any reason to not soar
with confidence.
As the heat begun, Graves immediately got himself into the lead by catching a wave to earn 6.17 points off it. He soon followed it up with a 5.37-wave to finish with a score of 11.54.
Neves responded with a 5.73 and now just required 5.82 points off his second wave to stay alive in the competition. However, he was unable to get the required score and ended up losing by 0.94 points, much to the disappointment of the local crowd. Graves
qualified for the next stage of Super Surf International, while Neves was removed from the event-title race.
The 11th heat pitted Brazil’s Miguel Pupo against his compatriot, Neco Padaratz. Pupo was clearly the favourite to win the heat after taking his recent performances into account. He continued to exhibit the same excellent form in his latest heat,
opening his account with an outstanding 8.83 off his first wave and following it up with a 6.13-point wave soon afterwards to finish with a heat-total of 14.96.
Padaratz was forced to surrender victory after earning 6.50 and 5.63 off his two waves, finishing in a 2.83-point deficit. Consequently, he was eliminated from the competition, while Pupo advanced to the next round of the event.
The final heat of round of 24 saw two surfers from New Zealand, Richard Christie and Jay Quinn, battle it out for survival.
As the heat kicked off, Christie immediately locked a wave to earn himself 7.00 points off it. However, Quinn responded with a better wave-score, scoring 7.67 to clinch the lead. He then sought to retain his lead by following it up with another good score,
but only managed a 5.67 off his second wave, presenting his rival with an opportunity to steal the lead. Christie capitalised on the opportunity and moved into the lead once again with a second-wave score of 7.87. As a result, he walked away victorious from
the heat, qualifying for the round of 12, while Quinn was forced out of the competition.
For updates on Super Surf International’s round of 12, stay tuned to Bettor.com.
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