John John Florence dominates Kai Otton to reach 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro Final – Surfing News
Hawaii’s John John Florence put on a superb performance to down Australia’s Kai Otton in the second Semi-final of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro that went down at Margaret River in Western Australia on Saturday, March 24.
With his comprehensive victory over Otton, Florence made his way into the Final of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event.
The young Hawaiian sensation had been on fire since the very first round of the event. The big waves that were being offered by Margaret River seemed to bring out the best in him, courtesy of his experience of surfing at Banzai Pipeline back home. The waves
that Florence had grown up surfing are known to be one of the biggest and most challenging waves in the world, making him feel pretty much at home at Margaret River as he got to ride similar waves.
After putting on a series of excellent performances, Florence made his way through into the Semi-finals where he encountered the local talent Otton. The Australian surfer was no stranger to the surfing conditions and waves at Margaret River and was expected
to give the Hawaiian surfer a run for his money during the battle for a spot in the Final.
As the second Semi-final got underway, Otton got off to a modest start. However, he slowly built momentum to post a 6.60 on the scoreboard off his first business-wave and immediately followed it up with a 7.77-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 14.37
points.
Florence managed to make his rival’s effort look obsolete as he began his onslaught to completely steal the show. After going through a series of average-to-decent scores, the Hawaiian surfer caught his first business-wave to unload a string of exquisite
manoeuvres, posting a 9.33 on the score-board.
As the heat progressed, he got himself in a position to catch yet another juicy wave that appeared in the final minutes of the heat. This time he dug deeper into his bag of tricks to pull out something even more stunning. The second business-wave left everyone
at the event site in awe while compelling the judges to give him a 9.80. The score took him to a heat-total of 19.13 points, which served to earn him a convincing victory.
With his confident victory in the second Semi-final, Florence advanced through into the Final where he was going to face his fellow countryman Olamana Eleogram in a battle for the event-title.
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