Gudauskas, Wilson and Ribeiro advance to Round 2 of Vans US Open of Surfing – Surfing news
America’s Patrick Gudauskas, Australia’s Julian Wilson and Brazil’s Alex Ribeiro made it through into the second round (Round of 48) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Vans US Open of Surfing after emerging triumphant in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats that went down at the Huntington Beach Pier in California, America, on Monday, July 22, 2013.
Hawaii’s Sebastian Zietz, Brazil’s Wiggolly Dantas and America’s Brett Simpson successfully made the Round 2 cut as well after finishing second in their respective Round 1 heats.
With pulsing four-to-six foot waves on offer at the main event site, the opening day of the latest ASP Prime event promised to be full of enthralling performances.
Locking horns with Zietz, Puerto Rico’s Dylan Graves and Brazil’s Jesse Mendes during the fourth heat, Gudauskas sure has his work cut out for him.
The American surfer, however, did well to rise to the occasion and put on an impressive performance to earn himself a heat-total of 13.76 points. The effort proved sufficient to earn him the top spot.
Zietz finished second after landing a solid performance for a two-wave total of 13.30 points. Graves finished in third place with a heat-total of 12.26 points, while Mendes finished last after registering a heat-total of 11.90 points.
The fifth heat saw the 24-year-old Wilson, defending event champion, finish on top of Dantas, local talent Kanoa Igarashi and Canary Island’s Jonathan Gonzalez by registering a heat-total of 14.77 points.
“With 30 minutes, I knew there would be plenty of waves and I knew I’d get my chances. My board feels really good and I knew that if I got two fun rights I could make scores. Kanoa (Igarashi) surfed really well for a young guy and put some pressure on, Wiggolly (Dantas) got a score and Jonathan Gonzalez as well, so it was a tough heat. There was plenty of opportunity out there and it’s good to get that heat out of the way coming back to defend the title,” Wilson said.
Dantas got into the next round as well after securing second place with the help of a heat-total of 13.03 points. Igarashi and Gonzalez were forced to make a premature exit from the competition after registering a heat-total of 12.93 and 12.10 points respectively.
The sixth heat saw Ribeiro claim a victory over Simpson, Australia’s Stu Kennedy and Hawaii’s Olamana Eleogram, courtesy of a heat-total of 14.10 points.
Simpson finished with a heat-total of 13.83 points to clinch second place, whereas Kennedy and Eleogram registered a heat-total of 11.76 and 7.77 points respectively, thus getting eliminated from the competition.
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