John John Florence and Hank Gaskell enter 2011 Vans World Cup of Surfing Final
The surfing action continued at the Sunset Beach of Oahu, Hawaii, on Friday, December 2, as Vans World Cup of Surfing, the second stop of the men’s prestigious Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, featured Hawaii’s John John Florence, his compatriot Hank Gaskell,
Australia’s Adrian Buchan and Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro in a four-man second Semi-final.
The crowd-favourite Florence completely stole the show with his outstanding performance to giving hardly any room to his competitors to even reach out for victory. Gaskell made it into the Final as well after finishing in second place. Buchan and the defending
event-champion, Monteiro, got eliminated from the competition after finishing in third and fourth positions respectively.
The 19-year-old Florence had been making waves at Sunset Beach over the course of the event. Despite pitted against a long list of extremely talented surfers from around the globe, the young Hawaiian had managed to hold his own and survive whatever challenge
was thrown at him. After drilling through the initial rounds, Florence found himself just one step away from getting a shot at the event-title, a perfect closure to what had been a memorable event for him so far.
As the second Semi-Final got under-way, the crowd-favourite Florence got down to business right away and opened his account in the opening minutes of the heat with an 8.57-point wave. It took him a while to get his hands on his second competitive score,
but the wait was definitely worth it as he found a wave to unload a string of exquisite tricks on it to collect 9.83 points for the effort, consequently moving to a heat-total of 18.40 points. The solid heat-total sealed the fate of the contest in his favour,
filling him up with immense confidence as he made his way into the Final.
Gaskell continued to show good form in his latest heat as well and clinched runner-up place after scoring 7.00 points off his first business wave and following it up with a 7.50-point wave, finishing with a resultant heat-total of 14.50 points.
Buchan held nothing back as he searched for a couple of competitive scores, but the effort turned out to be in vain. In the end, he had to settle for third place after scoring 13.57 points in total off his best two waves, which included a 5.57 and an 8.00-point
wave.
Monteiro lost his chance to defend his title after only managing to get to a heat-total of 9.77 points, which included a 4.37 and 5.40-point wave. The performance was considered extremely disappointing as the waves on offer definitely provided him with an
opportunity to score something better.
For updates on the Final of 2011 Vans World Cup of Surfing, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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