Junior Faria and Nat Young emerge triumphant in Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The Ribera D’Ilhas beach in Ericeira, Portugal, continued to play host to some of the most talented surfers from around the globe as the event moved to the sixth and seventh heat of Round 1 (round of 96) on Tuesday, June 14th.
The sixth heat pitted Brazil’s Junior Faria against his compatriot Jean da Silva, Hawaii’s Fredrick Patacchia and Germany’s Marlon Lipke in a four-way battle for survival. Faria managed to prevail over his rivals and secure a place in the second round, while
Patacchia clinched the runner-up position to stay alive in the competition. Da Silva and Lipke rounded out the bottom-two positions and found themselves out of the event title race as a result.
In the seventh heat, America’s Nat Young dominated his competition, which comprised of South Africa’s Travis Logie and the two Brazilians, namely Messias Felix and Marco Fernandez. Logie managed to hang on to the second position to survive the heat and make
it to the next round of the event. However, both the Brazilians were eliminated after rounding out the third and fourth position.
The surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event site were somewhat demanding, with three-to-four foot waves breaking at the beach. It resulted in a low-scoring contest as the surfers struggled to pull off something exciting on the low tides.
Of the four surfers in the sixth heat, Faria remained the most impressive, scoring 6.03 points off his first wave and soon following it up with a 5.57-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 11.60 points. The score proved to be sufficient to carry him
off to victory and the next round.
Patacchia took second place after scoring an identical score of 5.60 points from both his waves to finish with a two-wave total of 11.20 points.
Da Silva finished with an overall score of 10.77 points to secure third place, while Lipke rounded out the last position after scoring 5.73 and 5.00 off his two waves.
The seventh heat turned out to be a one-man show for Young, the promising Californian surfer. Despite the challenging conditions, the 20-year-old went on a rampage, surfing his first wave for a 7.87 and soon adding a near-perfect score of 9.10 to his account
to finish with a two-wave total of 16.97 points.
Talking to a reporter after his amazing first-round performance, Young said, “Hopefully I can do the same in the next heat the same as I did now. Sometimes you get a high score in your heat and then there is a bit more pressure in the next one but big scores
also gives you confidence as well.”
Logie settled for the runner-up position after failing to come up with a strong response to the American’s performance. He did, however, manage a couple of good scores, 6.50 and 7.27, to survive the heat and qualify to the next round.
Flex and Fernandez were unable to make any strong impact during the heat. While Felix rounded out the third position by earning 12.04 points off her two waves, Fernandez finished last with 11.67 points. As a result, both were eliminated from the competition.
For more updates on the first round of QuikSilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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