Jay Quinn and Dale Staples crawl into Round 2 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro – ASP Prime Event
A timely charge by New Zealand’s Jay Quinn allowed him to clinch top honours during the seventh heat of Billabong Azores Islands Pro’s Round of 96 (Round 1), that took place at Praia de Santa Barbara in Sao Miguel, Portugal, on Thursday, September 29.
The first-place finish served to confirm his place in the Round of 48 (Round 2). South Africa’s Dale Staples successfully survived the heat by getting his hands on the runner-up place, consequently advancing through to the next round as well. Brazil’s Junior
Faria finished in third place, getting eliminated from the competition as a result.
While the opening day of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event offered decent conditions for surfing, the situation did not look too good during the morning on Day 2. There were tough three-to-four foot waves gracing the event
site and the off-shore winds were still there, adding to the challenge of getting a decent score off the waves.
The seventh heat featured a three-man battle instead of the original four-man battle due to one of the competitor pulling out at the last minute. All three surfers struggled to adjust to the demanding surfing conditions, though the 23-year-old Quinn relatively
did better than the rest to squeeze something out of the waves on offer.
Finding no luck in the beginning stages of the 30-minute heat, Quinn kept the search for a good score going. The persistence paid-off as he managed to score 6.33 off a wave in the later stages of the battle. He immediately followed it up with a 3.93-point
wave to attain a heat-total of 10.26 points. This may not have been the Kiwi’s best performance, but that hardly mattered as the two-wave total eventually sealed the fate of the contest in his favour.
Staples did not seem to be high on luck either and failed to come across a good wave despite searching hard throughout the entirety of the contest. However, a 4.00-point wave early in the heat, followed up a 4.57-point wave proved to be sufficient to keep
him alive in the competition by getting him second position and sending him through to the next round.
Faria locked a wave early in the three-man battle to collect 4.50 points off it, but lost his way completely from there on and failed to add another decent score to his account. To further add to his misery, he got marked for interference and got penalised
through points-deduction, eventually finishing with a heat-total of 5.89 points. The disappointing performance resulted in his expulsion from the competition.
The surfing action continued with the remaining heats of Billabong Azores Islands Pro’s Round 1.
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