John John Florence and Kai Otton advance into the Semi-finals at 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro
Hawaii’s John John Florence and Australia’s Kai Otton made their way into the Semi-finals at the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro after walking away with top honours from their respective Quarter-finals that went down at Margaret River in Western Australia on Saturday, March 24.
Florence managed to make Australia’s Nic Muscroft bow out to him in the third Quarter-final, whereas Otton got the better of America’s CJ Hobgood in the fourth Quarter-final to secure their place in the next stage of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event.
The world’s best surfers had arrived at Margaret River at the start of the week to take each other on in big waves that put both their skills as well as experience to test. It turned out to be an action-packed and adrenaline-pumping week as the fans got to witness the older and newer generation of surfers taking each other on fearlessly while pursuing the event title.
One of the biggest standouts of the event so far, Florence, took on an in-form Muscroft in the third Quarter-final. The latter enjoyed the local knowledge of the waves, but the Hawaiian surfer’s experience of surfing the mammoth-sized waves at Banzai Pipeline was coming handy as Margaret River sent challenging waves in the director of surfers.
As the man-on-man battle for the Semi-final slot got underway, Florence continued his excellent run of form to put on yet another superb performance. The Hawaiian surfer got hold of a juicy wave early in the heat to unload a series of exquisite manoeuvres, earning an 8.17 for the effort. Scoring a 7.27 off his second business-wave, he finished with a heat-total of 15.44 points.
Muscroft struggled to find his rhythm during the initial stage of the heat, but gradually built momentum to eventually post a 7.93 and 5.17 on the score-board. However, his resultant heat-total of 13.10 points turned out to be inadequate and consequently forced him to surrender victory and thus the Semi-final spot to Florence.
The fourth Quarter-final saw Otton put on a spectacular performance to down keep Hobgood from making the Semi-finals.
The Australian surfer drew first blood with an 8.07-point ride and eventually backed it up with an 8.83-point wave in the dying minutes of the heat to finish with a heat-total of 16.90 points.
Hobgood responded with a 6.40 and 7.53-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 13.93 points, consequently succumbing to his rival and thus getting eliminated from the competition.
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