Julian Wilson defeats Miguel Pupo to claim Nike US Open of Surfing Title
Australia’s Julian Wilson took out the Nike US Open of Surfing after holding off Brazil’s Miguel Pupo in the Final that went down at Hunting Beach in California, America, on Sunday, August 5.
The Final featured plenty of suspense and turns, with both the surfers apparently pushing themselves beyond limits to reach out for victory. In the end, however, it was Wilson who managed to strike just in time to seal the deal.
“I’m over the moon,” Wilson said. “I got a really good start and my hat goes off to Miguel (Pupo) he’s deadly. I knew he was going to be hunting those lefts the whole heat and I just tried to apply a bit of pressure on him. He got that 8.93 and was right
back in the heat with plenty of time left. There weren’t that many opportunities out there but it came down to the last minute and I had to just pray there wasn’t one behind it.”
The entire week had been full of phenomenal performances and it ended with a battle that could not be regardless as anything less than superb.
The iconic event site is renowned for delivering thrilling surfing action and it continued to uphold this reputation by entertaining the huge crowd in attendance as well as global audience who caught the event live through live broadcast to memorable surfing
over the week.
With the final taking place between Wilson and Pupo, there was no doubt about the event wrapping up with plenty of fireworks.
Both the surfers had been displaying a consistent and sensational form since the start of the event. Despite being young of age and pitted against the surfing heavy-weights, which included the 11-time Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Champion
Kelly Slater, the two surfers had held their nerve and delivered confident performances.
As the Final got underway, Wilson wasted absolutely no time to fire. In the opening minutes of the heat, he locked a juicy wave to make the most of it and consequently posted a 9.13 on the score-board.
Pupo failed to come up with a solid response immediately, managing to score a seemingly inadequate 5.83 off his first business-wave, but rather than allowing to deter his confidence, he stepped up to collect an 8.93 off his second business-wave, thus moving
to a heat-total of 14.76 points.
With his rival back in the heat, Wilson was forced to show urgency in his search for another good score. After a lengthy struggled, unwavering determination and a bit of good fortune, the Australian surfer found an 8.40-point ride in the dying minutes of
the heat to jump to a heat-total of 17.53 points, thus overtaking his rival by a comprehensive margin to claim victory.
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