Gabriel Medina and Michel Bourez advance to Round 4 of Billabong Pipe Masters – 2011 ASP World Tour
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina squared off with South Africa’s Travis Logie in the seventh heat, while Tahiti’s Michel Bourez battled it out with Australia’s Adam Melling in the eighth heat of the 2011 Billabong Pipe Masters’ Round 3 that went down at the famed
North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on Friday, December 9.
The seventh heat turned out to be a pretty one-sided contest as Logie failed to offer any challenge to Medina during the 40-minute battle, allowing the latter to walk away with a comfortable win into Round 4, while the South African got eliminated from the
competition.
Bourez and Melling struggled to hold their own during the eighth heat, but the Tahiti-based surfer eventually managed to clinch the win and extended his life in the event while bringing the final stop of the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)
World Tour to a premature end for Melling.
Both Medina and Logie had struggled to adjust to the huge and deadly barrels that the primary event site had to offer, finding it extremely hard to collect big scores. However, Medina made his way into the third round with a lot more confidence and managed
to put forward a much better performance. He went through a number of waves to eventually post a 6.17 and 6.60 on the score-board, finishing with a heat-total of 12.77 points as a result.
Logie made a determined effort to find a competitive score, but failed to get through the waves cleanly. Despite locking a handful of waves, his best scores included a 1.07 and 1.20, making him finish with a resultant heat-total of 2.27 points. This forced
him to concede a rather easy win to Medina, sending the latter to the next round while getting eliminated from the competition.
The eighth heat found Bourez and Melling as much troubled by the mammoth-sized waves as their peers. Their big-wave prowess was being tested by the North Shore of Oahu and not many seemed to be enjoying the challenge.
The Tahiti-based Bourez caught his first business-wave a little past the half-way stage of the heat to post a 2.97 on the score-board and added a 3.43 to his account off the final wave, finishing with a heat-total of 6.40 points as a result.
Melling did not have a big hurdle to jump over, but the Australian failed to adapt to the 10-foot waves any better than his rival. He eventually finished with a heat-total of 5.90 points, which comprised of a 1.90 and 4.00-point wave. The lacklustre performance
resulted in his elimination from the competition.
For more updates on Round 3 of the 2011 Billabong Pipe Masters, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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