Luke Davis barely claims victory in the opening round of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime – Surfing News
America’s Luke Davis made his way to a scratchy win in the third heat of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime’s Round 1 (Round of 96) that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach in Saquarema, Brazil, on Tuesday, May 22.
Finishing just behind Davis in second place was his compatriot Patrick Gudauskas. Both the Americans consequently made their way into the second round (Round of 48) of the competition. Hawaii’s Kevin Sullivan and America’s Cory Lopez found themselves making
an early exit from the competition after finishing in third and fourth place respectively.
The third event on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) PRIME event calendar attracted top surfing talent from around the globe by offering them a chance to get a slice of the $US 250,000 prize purse along with the coveted ASP ranking points.
The excellent waves breaking at the event site further added to the excitement, promising fans a heavy dose of exquisite performances and thrilling action throughout the day.
The third heat of Round 1 featured Davis in a four-man battle against Gudauskas, Sullivan and Lopez. All four surfers were more than capable of stealing the show on their day and thus made it difficult to pick a favourite.
As the heat got underway, it soon became obvious that it was not going to be a high-scoring affair. The sea had suddenly lost its generosity, making it a real tough job for the surfers to get their hands on a couple of good scores.
Davis tried to counter the situation through an aggressive strategy, attacking as many waves as he could. Despite a long and persistent search, the American surfer had to settle for a couple of scores in the four-point range as his best, thus reaching a
heat-total of 8.86 points. While the effort hardly seemed like a winning one, it ended up sealing the deal in his favour.
Gudauskas did not have much luck with the waves either and only managed to get to a heat-total of 8.73 points after scoring a 4.83 and 3.90 off his best-two waves. However, the score served to get him through into the next round.
Sullivan finished with a heat-total of 8.63 points, while Lopez had to settle for a two-wave total of 7.17 points after failing to find a decent scoring opportunity throughout the course of the battle. Both the surfers were consequently eliminated from the
contention for the event title.
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