Joel Parkinson defeats Kai Otton in round two of Billabong Rio Pro
Current Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Number Two, Australia’s Joel Parkinson, defeated his compatriot, Kai Otton, in the fifth heat of the second round of the men’s Billabong Rio Pro on Wednesday, May 18th, at Arpoador
beach resort in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Parkinson got off to a slow start and patiently waited for a good wave to come his way. He apparently had a strategy that he was going to stick to and hoped for it to deliver. He finally locked on to a good looking way in the final stages of the heat to
earn the highest single-wave score of nine out of ten to end up with a two-wave total of 13.33. The score took him ahead of Otton, who had managed a 11.77 after his two waves, to cement a place for him in the third round.
“A strategy is a strategy and I had seen a few waves out there,” Parkinson said. “Yesterday the tide came in and just kind of killed me. The wave is pretty tricky here and it’s kind of a dog fight to try and get a wave.”
The surfing conditions at the event site were challenging. With a maximum of four-foot tides hitting the beach, the surfers were faced with the difficult task of picking the right waves and making the most out of them. The contest at Arpoador was turning
out to be more about the experience than skills. The latter still played a substantial role in determining the winner.
The third stop of the ASP Men’s World Tour promised good surfing conditions as the beaches of Rio de Janeiro are renowned for their excellent breaks. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The event was scheduled to start from May 11th at Barra
da Tijuca but the low tides had forced the event organisers to call six consecutive lay days before eventually shifting the competition to Arpoador. While the conditions at the new site were not ideal, they were relatively better than the previous site. This
consequently led to the commencement of the men’s Billabong Rio Pro on Tuesday, May 17th.
The event is expected to return to Barra da Tijuca for the third round, though a lot depends on how the conditions turn out on Thursday morning.
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