Mitch Crews and Teppei Tajima emerge triumphant in Round 4 of ASP 4-Star Vans Pier Classic
Australia’s Mitch Crews and Japan’s Teppei Tajima continued their solid run of form at the Huntington Beach Pier in California, America, on Friday, March 30, winning their respective Round 4 (Round of 64) heats to make their way through into the next round
(Round of 32) heats.
America’s Brad Ettinger and his fellow countryman Phillip Goold made their way through into Round 5 as well after clinching runner-up position in the first and second heat of Round 4 respectively.
The surfing conditions at Huntington Beach turned out to be challenging yet again. The waves were once again medium-sized, but their low frequency turned out to be a real nuisance for the surfers as they conducted their hunt for a decent heat-total.
The first heat of Round 5 pitted Crews against America’s Ettinger, Cory Arrambide and Blake Jones.
As the battle got underway, the Australian surfer got off to a slow start, but eventually built momentum to post a 5.77 on the score-board off his first business-wave. In the dying minutes of the heat, he added an additional 6.57 points to his account to
finish with a heat-total of 12.34 points.
Ettinger got off to a strong start, catching an impressive 8.00-point ride in the opening minutes of the heat. However, he failed to back it up with another good score. Settling for a 3.83 off his second business-wave, the American surfer finished with a
heat-total of 11.83 points to clinch runner-up place.
Arrambide and Jones rounded out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 8.60 and 5.60 points respectively. Both the surfers were consequently eliminated from the competition.
The second heat featured a decent performance by Tajima as he walked away with top honours by prevailing over his compatriot Yujiro Tsuji, America’s Goold and Brazil’s Yuri Sodre.
Tajima got off to a shaky start, scoring a 3.50 off his first business-wave, but went on to lock a juicy wave which he utilised to unload a string of impressive manoeuvres to add a 7.50 on the account, finishing with a resultant heat-total of 11.00 points.
Goold made a place for himself in the next round as well despite a pretty ordinary performance to finish with a heat-total of 6.77 points, which included a 2.77 and 4.00-point wave.
Tsuji finished third with a heat-total of 6.53 points, whereas Sodre rounded out the bottom-position after scoring a heat-total of 5.76 points.
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