Lakey Peterson advances to third round of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
America’s Lakey Peterson came up with the most impressive performance to clinch victory in the first heat of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro’s second round on Friday, June 10, at the beach-break of Praia do Guicho in Estoril, Portugal.
The conditions at the primary event site were not ideal, though there was still enough juice in the waves to allow the ladies to showcase their surfing prowess. The two-to-three foot waves, accompanied by strong off-shore winds tested the surfers for both
perseverance and skills. The going was tough out in the sea and it came down to experience rather than the most technical trick in the bag to catch a good wave and earn a fighting score.
Even under such demanding conditions, Peterson managed to hold her own and separate herself from her competition by instantly getting down to business and locking a good wave to throw down a set of sensational manoeuvres to earn a score of 8.00. Moving into
an instant lead, she further asserted her domination and locked the fate of the heat with her second wave in the final moments, surfing it for an impressive 7.00 points. She finished with a heat-total of 15.00, a score that proved good enough to carry her
off to a convincing victory and qualify her for the next round of the competition, the round of 24.
Australia’s Rebecca Woods managed to stay alive in the competition by clinching the runner-up position. She did not get off to a bad start either, locking a wave and earning 6.00 off it in the early stages of the heat. She immediately followed it with a
score of 5.00 off her very next wave, climbing to a two-wave score of 11.00. Unable to improve her score as the heat progressed, she settled for second position, quite content over securing a place in the next round.
Hawaii Bethany Hamilton and Australia’s Philippa Anderson rounded out the third and fourth positions respectively. The Hawaiian surfer scored 7.00 points off her two waves, while the Australian only managed a over-all score of 6.50. The weak performances
resulted in their elimination from the competition.
Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro is an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star event, fifth of seven stops on the 2011 ASP Women’s Star Tour and second stop on ASP Women’s European tour.
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