Ian Gouveia and Jordin Watson enter the Quarter-finals at CHIKO Pro Junior at Newcastle’s Surfest
Brazil’s Ian Gouveia and Australia’s Jordin Watson collected top honours in their respective Round 5 (Round of 16) heats of CHIKO Pro Junior at Newcastle’s Surfest that continued to treat the crowd to thrilling surfing action at Merewether Beach in New South
Wales, Australia, on Saturday, March 10.
Both Gouveia and Watson, along with Portugal’s Vasco Ribeiro and Brazil’s Jesse Mendes who finished as runner-up in their respective heats, advance through into the Quarter-finals.
The four-to-five foot waves on offer at the primary event site gave the surfers an opportunity to dig deep in their arsenal to bring out the technical and stylish manoeuvres lying in their bag of tricks.
As the third heat kicked-off, Gouveia went through a series of decent wave-scores before locking his first business-wave to unload a series of exquisite manoeuvres, earning an 8.75 for the effort. He went on to back it up with a near-perfect 9.65-point wave,
taking hi heat-total to 18.40 points that eventually served to carry him to victory.
Ribeiro put on a commendable fight to challenge his Brazilian rival, but the efforts proved good enough to only put him in second place. Earning a 7.95 and an 8.05 off his top-two waves, the Portuguese surfer finished with a heat-total of 16.00 points.
Frederico Morais, also from Portugal, barely missed out on the Quarter-final spot after finishing with a heat-total of 15.65 points. America’s Taylor Thorne put on a pretty ordinary performance for a two-wave total of 8.15 points.
The battle for the last-two Quarter-final spots took place between Watson who was the last Australian remaining in contention for the event-title, Mendes, his in-form compatriot Filipe Toledo and South Africa’s Michael February in the fourth heat.
Watson only caught four waves during the course of the heat, but managed to make a couple of them really count. He locked his first business-wave to post a 6.75 on the score-board and later backed it up with an identical score to finish with a heat-total
of 13.50 points. The score remained unbeatable until the end to earn him the win and take him through into the next round.
“The Brazilians sat on top of each other a bit and I was keeping clear of that,” Watson said after the heat. “The lefts looked like better scorers and that was the way it unfolded – it was a bit unlucky for [Filipe] Toledo now he’s out of the comp. The move
he made in the earlier heat was probably the best thing I have ever seen in surfing.”
Mendes managed to grab the last remaining slot in the Quarter-finals after taking first runner-up position through his heat-total of 10.65 points, which included a 4.40 and 6.25-point wave.
February finished in third place with a heat-total of 9.50 points, while Toledo, who had been exceptional during his previous heat, landed fourth place after a pretty ordinary performance for a two-wave total of 9.00 points. Both the surfers were consequently
removed from the contention for the event title.
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