Jeremy Flores and Kelly Slater move into the Semi-finals of Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach
France’s Jeremy Flores and America’s Kelly Slater claimed victory in their respective Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Quarter-finals that ran at the renowned Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, on Friday, April 6.
The first Quarter-final saw Flores prevail over Australia’s Owen Wright to make his way through into the Semi-finals, bringing the competition to a premature end for his rival in the process.
Slater continued his excellent run of form to down Australia’s Josh Kerr in the second Quarter-final, advancing through into the Semi-finals while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
With clean three-to-five foot waves breaking at the primary event site, the day was expected to be filled with exciting surfing battles. The best surfers from around the world had made up the field for the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)
World Title Series event, Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach. With the field getting trimmed to keep only the most in-form surfers alive in contention for the event title, the intensity of the upcoming encounters was expected to be nothing short of sky high.
Pitted against the promising Australian sensation Wright in the first Quarter-final, Flores was definitely aware of the challenging circumstances that he had to overcome. Aside from his rival’s skills, his familiarity with the waves and the support of the
crowd was something that kept Flores under pressure.
Rather than succumbing to pressure, the Frenchman came up with an impressive performance to fight odds and challenge his rival head on. Locking his first business-wave half-way through the heat, Flores posted a 6.83 on the score-board and went on to back
it up with a 7.23-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 14.06 points.
Wright responded with a 6.43 and 7.23-point to finish with a heat-total of 13.66 points. The 0.40-point deficit forced him to concede victory and thus the Semi-final slot to Flores.
The second Quarter-final turned out to be yet another exciting affair as the 11-time ASP World Champion Slater went head-to-head with an in-form Kerr.
Despite being a heavy favourite, the 40-year-old Floridian surfer was made to work really hard to live up to the expectations and clinch the win. Scoring a 9.17 off his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat, he went on to add an 8.80 in
the final minutes of the battle to finish with a heat-total of 17.97 points.
Kerr failed to outperform his rival, but did not go down without a fight. The Australian treated the crowd to an impressive performance as well, scoring an 8.33 and 7.77 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 16.10 points.
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