Kelly Slater secures victory in Round 1 of Hurley Pro – 2011 ASP World Tour
America’s Kelly Slater continued to assert his excellent form in the current season of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour at the Hurley Pro by winning the fifth heat of Round 1 that went down at Lower Trestles in California, America, on
Sunday, September 18.
The 39-year-old took the win over USA’s Rob Machado and Hawaii’s Fredrick Patacchia to advance directly into Round 3. Machado and Patacchia got relegated to Round 2 after finishing in second and third place respectively.
The 10-time ASP World Champion, Slater, carried his momentum from Quiksilver Pro New York to the latest stop of the elite tour and got off to a perfect start. With the local knowledge of the waves and the crowd’s support behind him, the scales were tipping
even more steeply in his favour.
As the fifth heat got underway, Slater got off to a slow start but slowly built momentum, eventually locking a wave to throw down a series of impressive tricks and collecting 7.60 points for the effort. Another impressive effort in the last minute of the
heat allowed him to add an additional 6.97 points to his account, taking him to a heat-total of 14.57 points and sealing the fate of the contest in his favour.
Commenting on the heat afterwards, Slater said, “Rob had the biggest wave in that heat and he was way inside and I just let him go where he wanted. He was looking left and started to go right and the left was good, but I was out of position and didn’t get
it. That last set came in at the end and Rob said he was going to go right and that wave cleaned it up and I got the one behind it. It feels good to get the win. I was frustrated. I haven’t surfed since New York and was lucky to get the win.”
The former ASP Dream Tour veteran, Machado, did well to keep Slater under pressure till the very last minute of the heat through his remarkable performance. He looked to be well on his way to victory after scoring 6.50 points off his first business-wave
and 7.00 off his second, till a last-minute effort from Slater pushed him down to second place.
Patacchia looked promising during his battle against Slater and Machado and announced himself as a threat with a 7.60-point wave almost half-way through the heat. However, he failed to find another good wave and was only able to add another 4.80 points to
his account, finishing in third place with a heat-total of 12.40 points
Machado and Patacchia will compete in the relegation Round 2 to try and extend their life in the competition by qualifying for Round 3.
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