Ideal start for Glenn Hall on opening day of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime – Surfing News
Ireland’s Glenn Hall walked away with a convincing victory from the sixth heat of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime’s Round 1 (Round of 96) that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 22.
Brazil’s Tomas Hermes managed to secure runner-up place, thus accompanying Hall into the second round (Round of 48) of the competition. America’s Nathaniel Curran and Australia’s Garrett Parkes finished in this and fourth place respectively, consequently
getting eliminated from the competition.
The opening day of the latest stop on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event calendar saw high-performance six-to-eight foot waves gracing the event site. With the top surfing talent from around the world arriving at Brazil to compete
for the coveted ASP ranking points and a share of the $US 250,000 prize purse, the fans expected a series of enthralling battles throughout the day.
The sixth heat of Round 1 featured Hall in a four-man battle against Hermes, Curran and Parkes for the Round 2 spot. With light winds and ideal waves on offer, the battle promised to be a thrilling one.
As the heat got underway, Hall got off to an excellent start. Locking a perfect left-hander in the opening minutes of the heat, the Irish surfer unloaded a series of exquisite manoeuvres to post an impressive 9.00 on the score-board. Remaining on the look-out
for another potent scoring opportunity, he eventually caught his second business-wave in the dying minutes of the heat to post a 6.77 to his account, thus finishing with a heat-total of 15.77 points. The last-minute effort allowed him to finish in the lead,
thus claiming top honours.
Hermes put up a determined effort to try and move into the end, but to no avail. Scoring a 6.07 off his first business-wave and backing it up with a 7.27-point ride in the final minutes of the heat, the Brazilian surfer finished with a heat-total of 13.34
points.
Curran got off to a promising start in the heat, earning an 8.17 off his first business-wave, but only managed to add an additional 4.50 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 12.67 points. As a result, he had to settle for runner-up place.
Scoring a 5.00 and 5.97 off his best-two waves, Parkes finished with a heat-total of 10.97 points. Both Curran and Parkes found themselves out of the competition due to their bottom-two finish.
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