John John Florence and Dane Reynolds treat the French crowd to brilliant performances
Hawaii’s John John Florence and America’s Dane Reynolds continued their excellent run of form at the seventh of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, Quiksilver Pro France, claiming top honours in their
respective Round 4 heats that went down at the main event site of La Graviere in Hossegor, France, on October 4, 2012.
Florence got the better of Brazil’s Miguel Pupo and America’s Kolohe Andino in the opening heat of Round 4 to successfully secure his place in the quarter-finals, forcing both his rivals to take a trip to the fifth round to surf again to make it through
into the next stage of the competition.
The second heat saw Reynolds claim a convincing victory over Australia’s Bede Durbidge and French Polynesia’s Michel Bourez to advance into the quarter-finals while sending both his rivals into the relegation round.
The pulsing six foot waves on offer at the primary event site during the fourth round of Quiksilver Pro France promised a series of enthralling performances by the best surfers in the world.
After witnessing a handful of upsets taking place over the last few days, the fans just could not keeping themselves from shaking with excitement as every battle held the possibility of being as intense as any that they had seen before.
The first heat of Round 4 saw three of the sport’s most promising talent taking each other on in their ASP Dream Tour.
Florence, Pupo and Andino had proved their mettle around the globe, but competing on the ASP World Championship Tour was an entirely different experience altogether.
The Hawaiian powerhouse was turning out to be the most successful surfer of the lot, sitting in Top 5 on the ASP World Title rankings and it seemed that he had made up his mind to move even higher on the rankings after collecting a good result in France.
Taking Pupo and Andino on in a three-man battle for the quarter-final spot, Florence got off to an excellent start, earning an 8.43 off his first business-wave to immediately exert pressure on his competitors.
Keeping the momentum going, he added another 8.07 points to his account, thus taking himself to a heat-total of 16.50 points.
The title was always going to prove to be a real tough challenge for his rivals and despite a superb performance by Pupo, scoring a 5.63 and near-perfect 9.63 off his best-two waves, the Brazilian was unable to surpass his Hawaiian rival.
Andino finished third after putting on a solid performance as well, which featured a 6.17 and 8.33 off his best-two rides to finish with a heat-total of 14.50 points.
The second heat featured the more experienced surfers taking each other on in a battle for the quarter-final spot.
Reynolds, who is considered among the best in the business, was never expected to take it easy on Durbidge and Bourez during the three-man battle.
As the heat kicked-off, the American surfer got off to a slow start, but eventually stepped up in the final minutes of the heat to post a 7.33 on the score-bard. He immediately followed it up with a 6.53-point ride to get to move to a heat-total of 13.86
points.
Durbidge finished in second place with a heat-total of 7.34 points, which included a 2.17 and 5.17-point ride, whereas Bourez finished third after scoring a 2.00 and 1.77 off his best-two waves.
It turned out to be an entertaining contest, though the star of the heat was unarguably Reynolds, the very man who had given American surfing legend and 11-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater a run for his money on numerous occasions.
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