Gabe Kling shows off his class on the opening day of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime – Surfing News
A series of powerful turns and airs earned America’s Gabe Kling a comprehensive victory in the second heat of the Quiksilver Saquarema Prime’s Round of 96 (Round 1) that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 22.
The successful result in the opening heat served to carry Kling into the second round (Round of 48). His fellow countryperson Michael Dunphy also managed to extend his life in the event by securing runner-up place to earn a place in Round 2. Australia’s
Tom Whitaker and New Zealand’s Richard Christie, however, were forced to leave the competition field after standing at third and fourth positions at the conclusion of the battle.
With a prize purse of $US 250,000 and coveted ranking points on offer, the best surfers from around the globe had turned up at Brazil to compete in the third event on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) PRIME event calendar. The perfect conditions
on offer at the event site served as an ideal stage for the surfers to unleash their stylish skills and thus keep the huge crowd that had shown up at the beach to catch the action live entertained.
Pitted against Dunphy, Whitaker and Christie in a four-man battle, Kling had his work cut out for him. However, the American surfer wasted very little time to move into a dominant position in the heat.
Locking a juicy left-hander in the opening minutes of the heat, Kling unload a flurry of trick to earn a 7.67 for the effort. He followed it up with a series of modest scores before adding another impressive score of 7.60 points to his account in the final
minutes of the battle. The last-minute effort took him to a heat-total of 15.27 points, which eventually earned him a convincing victory.
Dunphy struggled to find his rhythm during the early stages of the battle, but managed to find a 4.77 and 6.23-point ride in the dying minutes of the heat. The resultant heat-total of 11.00 points lifted him from last place to second, thus sending him through
into the next round.
Whitaker finished in third place with a heat-total of 10.86 points, which included a 6.63 and 4.23-point wave. Christie’s two-wave total of 9.20 points forced him to settle for fourth place. The dismissal performance by the two surfers led to their elimination
from the competition.
Tags: