Josh Kerr and Kelly Slater make it into the semi-finals at Billabong Prime Masters
Australia’s Josh Kerr and America’s Kelly Slater made it into the semi-finals at the Billabong Prime Masters, the final title in the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, after claiming top honours in their respective quarter-final
heats that went down at the Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, on Friday, December 14, 2012.
Kerr got the better of his fellow countryperson Yadin Nicol in the third quarter-final to secure his place in the semi-finals while removing the latter from the contention for the event title.
The fourth quarter-final saw Hawaii’s Shane Dorian failing to hold his own against Slater, getting eliminated from the competition while sending the latter into the next stage of the competition.
Throughout the course of the event, Banzai Pipeline had lived to its reputation of offering pumping six-to-eight foot waves, thus creating an ideal stage for the top surfing talent from around the globe to put their exquisite skills on display.
Kerr found himself pitted against Nicol in the third quarter-final, with only one of them to go through into the next stage of the competition.
As the heat got underway, Kerr did not take too much time to make his solid form evident. Locking his first business-wave, the Australian sensation unloaded a series of impressive tricks to earn an 8.00 for the effort.
Keeping the momentum going, he added an additional 7.00 points to his account, taking his heat-total to 15.00 points.
Nicol could not have hoped for a better start as he netted a perfect 10.00 off his first business-wave. Unfortunately for him and his fans, this remained the only high-point for him during the course of the battle as he struggled to get his hands on another
good score. Scoring a 2.17 off his second business-wave, he eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 12.17 points, consequently surrendering victory to his rival.
The fourth quarter-final saw the 11-time ASP World Champion Slater having to push hard to keep Dorian from performing an upset.
The local talent surprised everyone with his powerful performance. Scoring a 9.33 off his first business-wave and backing it up with an 8.87-point ride, Dorian registered a heat-total of 18.20 points.
This effort, however, turned out to be inadequate to keep Slater at bay, as the 40-year-old Floridian clinched a perfect 10 off his first business-wave and added an additional 8.73 points to his account, thus finishing with a heat-total of 18.73 points.
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