Josh Kerr and Peterson Crisanto reach the finals at Reef Pro El Salvador – Surfing news
Australia’s Josh Kerr and Brazil’s Peterson Crisanto earned themselves a shot at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Reef Pro El Salvador after claiming top honours in their respective semi-finals that went down at the main event site of
Punta Roca in La Libertad, El Salvador, on Sunday, July 14, 2013.
Kerr got the better of his fellow countryperson Wade Carmichael, though just barely, in the first semi-final to secure his place in the finals, while bringing the competition to a premature end for his rival in the process.
The second semi-final saw Crisanto finish on top of Hawaii’s Fred Patacchia, thus stepping into the final and consequently eliminating his rival from the contention for the event title.
The clean four-to-six foot breaking at the world-class right-hand point-break of Punta Rock had plenty of juice in them, creating an opportunity for the exciting surfing talent to dig into their arsenal of tricks and pulling out a series of exquisite tricks,
much to the joy of the huge crowd in attendance.
While Kerr had been quite solid since the start of the latest ASP 6-Star event, Carmichael’s form was nothing short of formidable either. The latter had shown off a great form in last week’s ASP 4-Star Surf Open Acapulco and seemingly brought that form with
him to La Libertad.
The battle between the two in-form surfers during the first semi-final surely lived up to the expectations. Both the surfers came hard at each other.
Carmichael managed to register a heat-total of 14.77 points, but Kerr managed to edge past him with a two-wave total of 14.86 points, which included a 7.93 and 6.93-point ride.
Despite getting eliminated in the semi-finals, Carmichael had nothing but good things to say about the surfing conditions at Punta Roca.
“My Central American trip went so well and I’m happy with it,” Carmichael said. “This wave is incredible, it’s just perfect and I had a great time.”
The second semi-final turned out to be a pretty one-sided contest, with Patacchia struggling with his form and consequently failing to make much of an impact during his match-up with Crisanto.
The Hawaiian surfer registered a heat-total of 9.93 points, whereas Crisanto collected an 8.33 and 8.43 off his best-two waves, thus finishing with a heat-total of 16.76 points.
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