Fredrick Patacchia and John John Florence survive Round 2 of Rip Curl Pro Portugal – 2011 ASP World Tour
The ninth of the eleven stops on the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, Rip Curl Pro Portugal, continued to treat the crowd to a heavy dose of surfing action as Hawaii’s Fredrick Patacchia took on Brazil’s Alejo Muniz in the fifth,
while Hawaii’s John John Florence squared off with Australia’s Adrian Buchan in the sixth heat of Round 2 at the iconic beach-break of Supertubos in Peniche, Portugal, on Monday, October 17.
The fifth heat saw Patacchia come up with a superior performance to take down Muniz and extend his life in the competition by moving into Round 3, eliminating the latter from the event in the process.
Florence put up a spectacular show in the sixth heat - stunning the crowd with a couple of mesmerising combinations of tricks - to prevail over Buchan and advance through into the third round while bringing the competition to a premature end for his opponent.
The high-performance six-to-eight foot waves gracing the banks of Supertubos promised a series of thrilling battles as the surfers sought to survive the do-or-die Round 2 and continue their pursuit of the event title to improve their standings in the ASP
World Rankings.
As the fifth heat got underway, the 29-year-old Patacchia took some time to get a good feel of the waves before making a charge. He locked a juicy wave to collect 6.50 points off it and soon added an impressive 7.93 points to his account to finish with a
heat-total of 14.43 points.
Muniz hunted hard for an adequate response and found an encouraging 7.33-point wave almost half-way through the heat. However, he failed to follow it up with another decent score and eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 12.90 points. The 1.53-point
deficit forced him to concede victory to Patacchia, sending the Hawaiian into the next round.
The next heat featured one of the most stunning performances of the day as the newcomer to the ASP World Tour, Florence, unleashed an onslaught that sent the crowd and judges in awe. Despite being just 17 years of age, the Hawaiian proved to be wiser beyond
his years and put forward a show that neither his opponent, Buchan, nor the crowd would be forgetting anytime soon.
As the heat got underway, Florence went through a series of average scores before locking a wave to unload a string of spectacular tricks, earning 9.73 points for the effort. Continuing the momentum, he went on to add an additional 9.80 points to his account,
climbing to a mammoth-sized heat-total of 19.53 points.
Buchan needed to come up with a couple of near-perfect scores in order to stand a chance against his young opponent, but the task turned out to be too much for him to accomplish. He eventually finished with a heat-total of 13.97 points, which included a
7.00 and 6.97-point wave. The weak response to the challenging score put up by Florence caused him to surrender defeat to the latter, consequently sending the Hawaiian through into the third round.
For more updates on Round 2 of Rip Curl Pro Portugal, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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