Matt Banting downs Evan Geiselman to claim Australian Open of Surfing title – Surfing News
Australia’s Matt Banting defeated America’s Evan Geiselman to claim the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Australian Open of Surfing title at Manly Beach in New South Wales, Australia, on Sunday, February 19.
Despite a handful of surfing heavy-weights in the competition field, it was the relatively inexperienced surfers who had managed to steal the show over the last few days, treating the crowd to exciting performances quite consistently.
Pitted against each other in the Final on Sunday, both Banting and Geiselman seemed to be equally capable of going the distance.
As the last battle of the event kicked off, the 17-year-old from Port Macquarie drew first blood by locking a right-hander to unload a string of air-reverses for an 8.10. A few minutes later, he saw yet another right-hander coming his way and quickly set
himself up to unleash yet another combination of exquisite aerials. The wave added another 8.73 points to his account to take him to a heat-total of 16.83 points.
Geiselman had no intention of allowing his competitor to walk away with an easy win and made a determined effort to challenge his lead. The American earned a 7.43 off his first business-wave and immediately followed it up with an 8.10-point wave. Despite
an impressive response, he finished in a 1.30-point deficit, consequently surrendering victory to his Australian rival.
With his first-place finish at Australian Open of Surfing, Banting took home USD $25,000 and 3,500 coveted ASP World Tour rating points.
Talking to a reporter after the Final, the Australian sensation said, “This has been the best week of my life! I'm so happy, this is the best feeling I've ever had! I'm shaking so much I can hardly talk. Evan [Geiselman] is a really good surfer, he was blowing
up for the whole final, I was really scared. I was just lucky to start off well with a couple of good waves.”
Geiselman admitted that he was not too disappointed about his runner-up finishing, considering that this was his best result at an ASP 6-Star event. He was satisfied with his performance and plans on using the confidence gained by besting some of the biggest
names in surfing in the last few days to earn a place in the ASP World Title series by the end of this year.
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