Jay Quinn and Alan Donato move into Round 3 of Burton Toyota Pro at Newcastle’s Surfest
New Zealand’s Jay Quinn and Brazil’s Alan Donato emerged triumphant in their respective Round 2 (Round of 96) heats of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Burton Toyota Pro at Newcastle’s Surfest that continued at the Merewether Beach in New South
Wales, Australia, on Wednesday, March 14.
Both Quinn and Donato qualified for the third round of the event (Round of 48), accompanied by America’s Michael Dunphy and Brazil’s Jesse Mendes who took first runner-up place in the third and fourth heat respectively.
A long list of heavily-talented surfers from around the globe had gathered at the primary event site to compete for top honours at the latest ASP 6-Star event to get their hands on the coveted prize money and ASP rating points that were on offer. With two-to-three
foot waves on offer on day 3 of the event, the stage was set for yet another day of exciting surfing action.
The third heat of Round 2 featured a phenomenal performance by Quinn as he downed Dunphy, Brazil’s Jean Da Silva and Hawaii’s Kai Barger in a four-man battle.
The Kiwi caught his first business-wave to unload a series of stylish rails and airs for an 8.33. He later went on to add an additional 6.97 points to his account to take his heat-total to 15.30 points, which remained the highest two-wave total during the
course of the heat to earn him the win.
“I’ve been here for four days and that was my first surf,” Quinn said. “It took me while for me to get a good wave, but it all worked out for me in the end. It was a pretty good heat for me. This is a good place to have an event because it rarely goes flat
at this time of the year. Even when it is small you can still fit in a couple of turns.”
Dunphy was nothing short of impressive either and managed to secure his place in the next round after scoring a 7.17 off his first business-wave before backing it up with a 5.77 in the dying minutes of the heat for a heat-total of 12.94 points.
Da Silva finished third with a heat-total of 10.50 points, while Barger rounded out the fourth position with a heat-total of 8.57 points. Both the surfers got eliminated from the competition as a result.
The fourth heat pitted Donato against his compatriot Mendes, America’s Ian Crane and France’s Romain Cloitre.
After remaining quite harmless for most part of the heat, Donato began his charge in the dying minutes to collect a couple of scores in the five-point range to finish with a heat-total of 11.26 points.
Mendes successfully extended his life in the event as well after finishing with a heat-total of 9.90 points, which included a 5.33 and 4.57-point wave.
Crane and Cloitre were forced to make a premature exit from the contention for the event-title after scoring a heat-total of 9.00 and 7.93 points respectively.
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