John John Florence and Kelly Slater reach Round 4 of Oakley Pro Bali – Surfing news
Hawaii’s John John Florence and America’s Kelly Slater claimed victory in their respective Round 3 heats at the Oakley Pro Bali, the fifth of ten stops on the 2013 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, which recommenced at the
main event site of Keramas in Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013.
Florence got the better of Hawaii’s Sebastian Zietz in the fifth heat, while Slater downed the local talent Putra Hermawan in the sixth heat to go through into the next round, bringing the competition to a premature end for the rivals in the process.
After keeping both the surfers and fans of the exciting sport waiting for four days, the promised swell filled in at Keramas to allow the recommencement of the event, much to the relief of everyone.
With the barrelling conditions on offer yet again, the Round 3 contest between Florence and Zietz was what everyone had been waiting for. Both the surfers had pushed each other to the limit during their Round 1 face-off, putting on equally good performances,
though Florence had managed to clinch the victory by a very small margin.
Getting another chance to settle the score, Zietz was determined to finish on top of his compatriot this time.
As the battle kicked-off, however, it did not take long for Florence to stamp his authority over his rival. Selecting a juicy wave, he executed an exquisite manoeuvre to post an 8.67 on the score-board. Moments later, he added an additional 7.40 points to
his account to get to a heat-total of 16.07 points.
Zietz got off to a promising start, earning a 7.60 off his first business-wave, but he found himself needing a much bigger score to threaten his rival’s lead. Failing to find anything better than a 6.27-point ride, he concluded the heat on a heat-total of
13.87 points, which forced him to suffer defeat at the hands of Florence for the second time in three rounds, this time getting eliminated from the competition.
“Sebastian (Zietz) and I have had a lot of heats together lately,” Florence said. “He’s a couple of years older than me and he’s a really strong surfer. We had a really good Round 1 with lots of high scores and the waves this morning are ones that we both
like to surf in. Unfortunately for Bass, he broke his board on his opening wave and I think that put him out of rhythm for the rest of the heat. The waves are really firing right now.”
The sixth heat saw Slater, 11-time ASP World Champion, put on a rather uncharacteristic performance in conditions that were suited perfectly to his style of surfing.
The 41-year-old Floridian managed to defeat the local stand-out Hermawan, but he hardly felt satisfied by the way he rode the barrels.
Scoring a 7.13 and 6.83 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 13.96, Slater removed his rival, who registered a heat-total of 8.90 after earning a 6.97 and 1.93 off his top-two waves, from the contention for the event title.
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