Jack Freestone and Luke Davis prevail in opening round at Billabong Pro J-Bay
Australia’s Jack Freestone and America’s Luke Davis opened the Association of Surfing Professional (ASP) 6-Star Billabong Pro J-Bay with a successful result in their respective Round 1 (Round of 144) heats that went down at Supertubes in Jeffreys Bay, South
Africa, on Tuesday, July 10.
While Freestone claimed victory in the first heat, he was accompanied to the second round (Round of 96) by second-place finisher South Africa’s Beyrick De Vries. South Africa’s Dylan Lightfoot and his fellow countryperson Benji Brand rounded out the third
and fourth positions respectively, making an early exit from the competition as a result.
The second heat saw South Africa’s David Weare finished just behind Davis to advance to the next round of the competition as well. America’s Dillon Perillo and Brazil’s Flavio Nakagima rounded out the bottom-two positions to find themselves hitting the sidelines
on the very first day.
Demoted from an ASP World Tour event to 6-Star event, Billabong Pro still featured a massive field of top surfers from around the globe, offering them an opportunity to take home a slice of the US$ 155,000 along with coveted ASP World ranking points.
The first heat saw Freestone put on an impressive performance to down De Vries, Lightfoot and Brand. The Australian collected a 7.50 off his first business-wave and added an additional 5.77 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 13.27 points.
De Vries secured runner-up place with a two-wave total of 10.27 points, which included a 6.67 and 3.60-point ride.
Lightfoot and Brand finished with a heat-total of 8.67 and 5.40 points respectively, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The second heat featured a superb performance by Davis as he stamped his authority over his rivals with a 7.83 and 6.33-point ride, consequently finishing with a decisive heat-total of 14.16 points.
Weare struggled to find his rhythm during the course of the battle, but eventually managed to secure a two-wave total of 8.57 points, comprising of 5.50 and 3.07 points.
Perillo and Nakagima finished with a heat-total of 8.34 and 6.33 points respectively, forcing them to make a premature exit from the competition.
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