John John Florence overcomes Josh Kerr to move into Billabong Rio Pro Final
Hawaii’s John John Florence made his way through into the Final of Billabong Rio Pro after prevailing over Australia’s Josh Kerr in the second Semi-final that went down at the beach-break of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 16.
The battle turned out to be pretty one-sided with Florence completely stealing the show through his exquisite performance to walk away with a comprehensive victory.
The three-to-four foot barrels on offer at the primary event site on the last day of the latest stop of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World tour acted as an ideal canvas for the world surfing elite to put their exquisite skills on display.
While the conditions were nothing short of challenging, the surfers were expected to adapt to the conditions and deliver powerful performances to keep themselves in contention for the event title.
The second Semi-final saw Florence square off with Kerr in the battle for a place in the Final. While Kerr had exhibiting a solid form, the ability of Florence to put on superb performance in barrelling conditions was now common knowledge.
Both the surfers were keen on earning themselves a title shot and improving their place on the ASP World Title rankings, thus promising a heavy dose of thrilling action.
As the second Semi-final started, it did not take long for Florence to stamp his authority in the heat. The 19-year-old Hawaiian caught a perfect barrel in the opening minutes of the heat to post a 9.77 on the score-board and soon followed it up with an
8.17-point ride to move to a heat-total of 17.94 points.
Kerr missed out on a few opportunities that came his way and eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 11.86 points, which included a 3.73 and 8.13-point wave. The lacklustre effort resulted in him conceding an easy win to his Hawaiian rival to send him
through into the Final.
“I tried an air on the first wave I got and turned around and saw John John [Florence said] in the most perfect barrel,” Kerr said after the heat. “Out here in this beach-break you’ve got to keep an open mind. The wind came up from the south in my heat so
I was looking for the backhand airs. John John got the perfect barrel and there’s not much I could do about that.”
The victory in the second Semi-final took Florence in the Final of Billabong Rio Pro, where he was to battle Australia’s Joel Parkinson for the event title.
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