Joel Parkinson and Josh Kerr reach the semi-finals at Oakley Pro Bali – Surfing news
Australia’s Joel Parkinson and his fellow countryperson Josh Kerr successfully made it through into the semi-finals at the Oakley Pro Bali, the fifth of ten stops on the 2013 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, after clinching
top honours in their respective quarter-finals that went down at Keramas in Bali, Indonesia, on Thursday, June 27, 2013.
Parkinson earned his place in the semi-finals after getting the better of his compatriot Taj Burrow in the first quarter-final, while Kerr downed America’s CJ Hobgood in the second quarter-final to move one step closer to winning the event title.
The primary event site of Keramas had tested the patience of the contenders and surfing fans after delivering excellent conditions for the first-two round of the competition, but the long wait for the event to resume had turned out to be well worth it. For
the third consecutive day, a great swell graced the iconic Balinese right-hander of Keramas, creating an ideal stage for a series of exciting battles between some of the best surfers from around the globe.
Parkinson, the reigning ASP World Champion, found himself locking horns with Burrow, an experienced and immensely talented ASP World Championship Tour campaigner.
The battle was expected to feature plenty of fireworks, since both the surfers were known to possess a wide range of manoeuvres in their arsenal.
However, their encounter failed to live up to the expectations, as it turned out to be a pretty one-sided battle. Parkinson took control of the heat with a 7.50 off his first business-wave and went on to add an additional 5.67 points to his account, thus
getting to a heat-total of 13.17 points.
Burrow failed to find his rhythm during the course of the battle and ended up registering a heat-total of 3.13 points, which included a 2.00 and 1.13-point ride. As a result, he found himself eliminated from the contention for the event title.
The second quarter-final saw Kerr and Hobgood battle it out for a semi-final spot.
Both the surfers put on a determined performance, though the Australian surfer looked much more in the four-six foot waves than his rival.
Scoring an excellent 9.27 off his first business-wave and backing it up with an 8.17-point ride, Kerr finished with a heat-total of 17.44 points.
Hobgood got off to a decent start, collecting a 7.50 off his first business-wave, but only managed to add an additional 6.33 points to his account, thus registering a heat-total of 13.83 points. The 3.61-point deficit resulted in his defeat and consequently
elimination from the competition.
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