Gabe Kling and Nathaniel Curran make the semi-final cut at Islas Canarias Santa Pro
America’s Gabe Kling and his fellow countryperson Nathaniel Curran secured their place in the semi-finals at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Islas Canarias Santa Pro after claiming top honours in their respective quarter-finals that
went down at San Juan in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, on Friday, October 26, 2012.
Kling bested Basque Country’s Aritz Aranburu in the first quarter-final to make his way through into the next stage of the competition, removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
The second quarter-final saw Brazil’s Jean da Silver succumb to Curran, getting eliminated from the competition as a result while sending his rival through into the next round.
The shifting two-to-three foot waves on offer at the event site on the final day were putting both the experience as well as perseverance of the surfers to test, demanding a little extra from them before allowing them to bag a decent score.
Facing-off with Aranburu during the first quarter-final, Kling showed a great deal of patience as he hunted down a viable scoring opportunity.
Upon coming across the desired waves, the American surfer broke into a series of powerful turns to post a 7.00 and 5.33 on the score-board, thus getting to a heat-total of 12.33 points.
Aranburu, on the other hand, struggled throughout the entirety of the battle and eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 9.36 points, which comprised of a 4.03 and 5.33-poing ride.
The second quarter-final turned out to be a pretty one-sided affair, with Curran asserting pressure on Da Silva right from the opening moments of the one-on-one heat.
As the battle kicked-off, the American surfer locked his first business-wave to post a 4.83 on the score-board. Keeping the momentum going, he got hold of an excellent wave to unleash a combination of exquisite tricks. Earning a 9.17 for the effort, he finished
with a two-wave total of 14.00 points.
Despite needing a couple of good scores to threaten his rival’s dominant position, Da Silva was only able to get his hands on a 3.87 and 4.87 off his best-two waves, which consequently forced him to finish with a heat-total of 8.74 points.
The effort was not good enough under the circumstances and resulted in his elimination, whereas Curran confidently advanced to the semi-final stage.
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