Last-minute win over Adriano de Souza takes CJ Hobgood into the Volcom Fiji Pro semi-finals
CJ Hobgood from America took an excellent come-from-behind victory over Brazil’s Adriano de Souza in the fourth Quarter-final at the main venue of Cloudbreak in Tavarua, Fiji, on Monday, June 11.
The battle went down to the wire, with both the surfers pushing their limits to reach out for the win. Once the dust settled, it was Hobgood who stood triumphant with his place in the semi-finals while eliminated De Souza from the fourth of ten stops on
the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour.
“It was a blessing that wave came and it did,” Hobgood said. “I knew Adriano [de Souza] was going to post huge scores and he did. I wasn’t on my game at first. I should have sat up top and Adriano had me on the ropes. He’s been surfing so well this year
and I don’t think he’s had a worse event than the Semis. That wave came and I just put my head down. That feeling when they read out the score, it just feels good.”
The latest day of the competition saw the world’s surfing elite return to the main event site of Cloudbreak to compete in high-performance four-to-six foot wave. The swell at the open ocean reef pass had laid within the 12-to-14 foot range on Friday, compelling
the event organisers to shift the contest to the secondary event site of Restaurants for the third and fourth round on Saturday, but come back to the main venue for the final stages of the competition.
The fourth Quarter-final saw Hobgood and De Souza take each other on in a man-on-man battle for the semi-final spot. Both the surfers had been on a roll since the start of the latest stop on the elite tour and were expected to give each other a tough time
during the quarter-final clash.
As the batter got underway, De Souza got off to a confidence start. Locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the heat, the 25-year-old Brazilian posted an 8.83 on the score-board, backing it up with a 6.93-point ride in the later stages
of the heat.
Hobgood got off to a shaky start, seemingly struggling to find his rhythm. However, he built momentum as the heat progressed and broke free of the shackles halfway through the heat to post a 6.17 on the score-board. Still trailing behind his rival with only
a few minutes left for the buzzer to go off, the American surfer got hold of a juicy wave in the dying minutes of the heat and collected a near-perfect 9.97 for the effort to reach a heat-total of 16.14 points. The outstanding effort served to earn him top
honours, taking him through into the semi-finals.
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