Julian Wilson defeats Jordy Smith to claim Mr Price Pro Ballito title – Surfing news
Australian sensation Julian Wilson took out the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito after putting on a superb performance to keep the in-form South African surfer Jordy Smith at bay in the finals that went down at Willard’s
Beach in South Africa on Saturday, July 6, 2013.
Both Wilson and Smith came at each other hard during the finals, something that was expected of them considering the form they were in. However, once the dust settled, it was the Australian surfer who walked away with the top honours, much to the disappointment
of the local crowd, who were naturally cheering for his rival.
Both the surfers had been in prime form throughout the course of the competition, landing one great performance after another as they gradually forced their way through the talented competition field to eventually make it into the finals.
The conditions at the main event site of Ballito had not been ideal, but both the surfers had done well to adapt to the challenge. While Smith was aided by his local knowledge of the waves, Wilson relied solely on his experience as he tamed the waves on
offer.
During their finals match-up, plenty of fireworks were expected and much to the joy of the surfing fans, that is exactly how the battle for the overall win turned out.
Wilson went through a series of average scores before locking a juicy wave and earning a perfect 10 off it, leaving the crowd in attendance awe-struck.
He kept the momentum going to add an additional 8.93 points to his account, thus moving to a heat-total of 18.93 points.
Despite being in a formidable form, Smith found the daunting task of surpassing such an intimidating heat-total too much. An impressive 8.83 and 7.87 off his best-two waves took him to a heat-total of 16.70 points, which was inadequate under the circumstances
and consequently forced him to surrender victory to his rival.
“Jordy put the pressure on me at the start but there were plenty of opportunities and I just had to flip the heat and put some scores on the board,” Wilson said. “That was the first time I’ve landed that air in a contest and I had to do something because
I had my back against the wall. I’m stoked I could pull it off and come away with the win.”
With his win in the latest ASP Prime event, Wilson rocketed to No.1 on the ASP World Rankings.
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