Ian Gouveia and Beyrick De Vries jump into Round 3 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
Brazil’s Ian Gouveia and South Africa’s Beyrick De Vries successfully clinched top honours in their respective heats during the first round of Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championships that went down at Burleigh Heads
in Gold Coast, Australia, on Saturday, January 21
While Gouveia advanced directly into the third round of the competition, his two competitors Kan Watanabe from Japan and Dylan Kowalski from America got relegated to the second round after finishing in runner-up and third place respectively.
The 12th heat saw De Vries move into the third round due to his impressive performance. Brazil’s Lucas Silveira and South Africa’s Dylan Lightfoot, however, found themselves added to the relegation round line-up due to their second and third-place
finish respectively.
The two-to-three foot waves and sunny weather promised a day full of exciting surfing battles and even though the conditions had become a bit demanding during the afternoon, the crowd were definitely not disappointed with the action and intensity of the
remaining heats.
The action continued with the 11th heat as Gouveia, current No.9 on the ASP World Junior Rankings, took on Watanabe and Kowalski in a three-man battle for the Round 3 spot.
All three surfers struggled to get big scores during the course of the heat. Gouveia, however, managed to take the win after scoring a 4.33 and 5.23 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 9.56 points.
Watanabe had to settle for runner-up place after finishing with a heat-total of 9.50 points, which comprised of a 4.00 and 5.50-point wave.
Kowalski failed to score anything outside the range of three during the course of the battle and eventually finished the heat with a two-wave total of 6.63 points.
Even though the conditions did not become any less demanding during the 14th heat, De Vries managed to best the tricky wind-affected afternoon conditions and collected a couple of really impressive scores to take the win.
“It's so important to win that 1st Round heat because you get to skip Round 2,” De Vries said. “This point-break is quite different to others, so I'm stoked that my board was feeling good in that heat, and now I'll have even more time to figure out what
boards and fins work best out here. It also gives me more time to get over the jet lag, I'm still waking up at 3am every morning.”
Getting off to a slow start, the South African took his time to warm up to the waves and wind before going for the charge. As he locked his first business-wave, he pulled off a series of exquisite tricks, earning a 7.67 for the effort. He managed to add
another 6.10 points to his account in the dying minutes, thus finishing with a decisive heat-total of 13.77 points.
Silveira finished well behind De Vries after scoring 5.67 and 3.90 points off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 9.57 points.
Lightfoot failed to make much of an impact during the three-man battle. He managed to reach a disappointing heat-total of 8.16 points, which comprised of a 3.83 and 4.33-point wave.
The Billabong ASP World Junior Championships is the third and final event of ASP World Junior Tour and will determine the men’s and women’s 2011 ASP World Junior Champion.
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