Kelly Slater defeats Jeremy Flores to move into the Final of Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach – Surfing News
America’s Kelly Slater headed into the Final of Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, second stop of the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Series, after getting the better of France’s Jeremy Flores in the first Semi-final that went down at
Bells Beach in Victoria, France, on Friday, April 6.
The battle between the two in-form surfers turned out to be pretty exciting and could have concluded quite differently had the French surfer not gotten penalised for priority interference.
The 11-time ASP World Champion Slater was the favourite during the first Semi-final due to obvious reasons. Despite turning 40, he seemed to be on top of his game, managing to put on terrific performances irrespective of how difficult the surfing conditions
turned out to be. His vast skills and experiences could hardly be matched by anyone in the sport, something that was clear with his long list of achievements that were highlighted by his 11 ASP World Titles.
Flores, on the other hand, did not have a lot of successes to flaunt. However, his current form at Bells Beach was something that made him a strong contender for the event title. He had managed to down a rampaging John John Florence from Hawaii as well as
young Australian sensation Owen Wright to reach the Semi-finals. The confidence of his recent victories was expected to give him a huge confidence boost, though it remained to be seen whether it could help him in making an upset by downing Slater in their
Semi-final encounter.
As the man-on-man battle got underway in clean three-to-five foot waves, the Florida-based Slater drew first blood by locking a juicy wave early in the heat to unload a series of exquisite manoeuvres, earning a near-perfect 9.93 for the effort. He caught
his second business-wave halfway through the heat to add an additional 5.17 to his account, taking his heat-total to 15.10 points.
The 23-year-old Flores refused to let the intimidation of surfing against Slater get to him and pushed himself real hard since the very start of the heat. However, this determination seemed to have clouded his judgement as he ended up riding a wave on his
rival’s priority. This put him at a serious disadvantage, one which he failed to recover from despite collecting a couple of scores in the seven-point range. The two scores would have put him ahead of Slater on the score-board, but the penalty for interference
resulted in only one of the scores getting counted. As a result, Flores finished with a heat-total of 7.83 points.
“I’m disappointed with the result,” Flores said. “I feel like I was surfing really well and I didn’t agree with the interference call. That’s surfing though so I just have to brush it off and focus on the next one.”
Regardless of the Final’s outcome, Slater moved to the top on the 2012 ASP World Title Championship ratings.
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