Heitor Alves and Michel Bourez prevail in opening round of Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast
Brazil’s Heitor Alves and French Polynesia’s Michel Bourez walked away with top honours from their respective Round 1 heats at the opening event of 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, that went down at Snapper
Rocks in Queensland, Australia, on Saturday, February 25.
While Alves took the win in the ninth heat to confirm his place in the third round, Australia’s Matt Wilkinson took runner-up place while Brazil’s Alejo Muniz rounded out the third position. Both the surfers consequently got relegated to the second round
to battle it out for a spot in the third round.
Bourez also jumped straight into Round 3 after his win in the 10th heat. Jeremy Flores from France and Brazil’s Jadson Andre finished in second and third place respectively, finding themselves in the Round 2 line-up as a result.
With shifty three-to-four foot waves on offer at the primary event site, Alves did not have much luck in getting hold of an opportunity to score big during the early stages of the ninth heat. Wilkinson, on the other, felt quite at ease and posted a 6.17
and 8.00 on the score-board even before the heat got past the mid-way stage.
Despite the immense amount of pressure that he was under due to the Australian’s intimidating two-wave total, Alves held his nerves and remained focused on finding a good wave. He eventually got rewarded for his perseverance and patience in the dying minutes
of the heat when a set of high-performance waves appeared. The Brazilian gave his all on the two waves and ended up earning a 6.43 and 7.93 for his effort. The resultant heat-total of 14.36 points carried him past Wilkinson on the score-board.
Muniz was unable to make a solid impact during the course of the three-man battle, scoring a 4.67 and 6.20 off his top-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 10.87 points.
The 10th heat saw the 26-year-olds Bourez recover from a weak start, earning just 3.10 off his first business-wave, to finish with a heat-total of a decisive heat-total of 12.77 points, courtesy of an incredible tube that enabled him to post a
9.67 on the score-board.
“I waited for that wave for about 15-minutes, it was such a good feeling,” Bourez said. “I knew I needed a big score and I knew I needed to wait for the big waves to get a barrel. After the barrel you just have to hit the lip as hard as you can to get a
good score and I’m so stoked. I’m glad to be here, it’s a blessing to be on tour surfing against the world’s best surfers.”
Flores finished in second place with a heat-total of 11.67 points, which comprised of a 5.00 and 6.67-point wave.
Andre remained the weakest performer in the heat, finishing with a heat-total of just 8.00 points, which included a 5.03 and 2.97-point wave.
The crowd kept getting treated to a heavy dose of action during the remaining heats of Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast’s Round 1.
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