Granger Larsen and Billy Stairmand prevail in Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The 10th and 11th heat of Quiksilver Pro Portugal’s round of 96 (Round 1) wrapped up at the Ribera D’Ilhas beach in Ericeira, Portugal, on Tuesday afternoon, June 14th.
Hawaii’s Granger Larsen clinched the win in the 10th heat to make it to the next round. South Africa’s Brandon Jackson also survived the heat by finishing as a runner-up to advance to the next round. Hawaii’s Kai Barger and his compatriot Kevin
Sullivan were eliminated from competition after finishing in third and fourth respectively.
In the 11th heat, New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand prevailed over his competition to advance to the next stage of the event. He was joined by Brazil’s Andre Silva, who finished in second place. Hawaii’s Mason Ho and Puerto Rico’s Brian Toth were
ejected from the event title race after rounding out the bottom-two positions.
Despite challenging surfing conditions on the first day of Quiksilver Pro Portugal, Larsen’s performance was quite decent, enabling him to outshine his three rivals. Earning an identical score of 6.93 points off both his waves, he ended the heat with a two-wave
total of 13.86 points and walked away victorious.
Jackson put up a commendable fight to keep Larsen from walking away with the win, but the effort remained futile. However, his score of 5.43 and 6.47 got him the second position and a spot in the next round.
While Barger fought hard to make it into the safe zone and ended up falling short by merely 0.13 points, Sullivan’s performance was rather disappointing. His two-wave total of 9.27 points put him in fourth place.
The 11th heat saw Stairmand emerge triumphant after catching a wave late in the heat to throw a combination of impressive tricks and earning 8.07 points for the effort, only to later follow it up with another decent 6.60-point wave. The heat total
of 14.67 proved to be too much for his competition to beat.
Silva also remained quite impressive, scoring 7.17 points off his first wave early in the heat and soon following it up with a 6.30-point wave to clinch the second position. The commendable effort got him a well-deserved place in the second round.
Ho and Toth were unable to make a strong impact during the heat, their weak performances getting eclipsed by the impressive performances of their Brazilian and the New Zealander rivals. While Ho scored 9.37 points to finish third, Toth merely managed to
get 6.71 points off his two best waves. Needless to say, both were eliminated from the competition.
For more updates on Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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