Johnny Hicks and Thomas Woods pass through Round 3 of CHIKO Pro Junior alive – Surfing News
New Zealand’s Johnny Hicks and Australia’s Thomas Woods collected a successful result in their Round 3 (Round of 64) heats of CHIKO Pro Junior at Newcastle’s Surfest that continued to deliver heavy dose of action at the Merewether Beach in New South Wales,
Australia, on Friday, March 9.
The 4-Star Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s Junior Qualifying events was offering prize money of $20,000 along with coveted ASP Junior rating points that were crucial to earning a place in the ASP Junior World Championship. With such coveted
rewards on offer, a long list of surfers from around the globe had gathered at Merewether Beach to battle it out for top honours and the prize.
As the event moved on to the seventh heat of Round 3 on Friday, the crowd witnessed a four-man battle featuring Hicks, South Africa’s Beyrick de Vries and two Australian surfers Phoenix Graham and Rory Jenkins.
As the heat kicked-off, Hicks got off to a good start. He locked a wave in the early minutes to post a 5.00 on the score-board and later backed it up with a 4.75-point wave to get to a heat-total of 9.75 points.
De Vries tried his utmost best to challenge the New Zealander’s lead but was eventually forced to concede victory. He scored a 2.60 and 6.25 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 8.85 points, claiming runner-up place as a result. Both Hicks
and De Vries moved into Round 4 (Round of 32) of the event.
Graham and Jenkins apparently struggled to find their rhythm during the course of the battle and eventually finished in third and fourth place respectively, with Graham getting a heat-total of 6.25 points while the latter finished with a heat-total of 5.20
points. Both the surfers were forced to make a premature exit from the event.
The eighth heat of the event pitted Woods against his compatriots Marc Williams and Jackson Baker, with Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhiam also part of the four-man battle.
Woods caught four waves during the course of the heat, earning 4.75 and 5.25 off his top-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 10.00 points. The score turned out to be pretty sufficient to earn him victory and send him through into the next round.
Boukhiam secured runner-up place and thus a place in the next round with a modest heat-total of 7.25 points, which comprised of a 3.50 and 3.75-point wave.
Williams finished third with a two-wave total of 7.05 points, while Baker finished fourth with a heat-total of 6.70 points. The bottom-two finish led to the elimination of both the surfers from the event.
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