Nic Muscroft and John John Florence into the Quarter-finals at 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro
Australia’s Nic Muscroft and Hawaii’s John John Florence advanced through into the Quarter-finals of the 2012 Telstra Drug Aware Pro after claiming top honours in their respective Round 5 (Round of 16) heats that went down at Margaret River in Western Australia
on Friday, March 23.
Muscroft got the better of his fellow countryman Adam Melling in the fifth heat, whereas Florence downed America’s Kolohe Andino in the sixth heat to advance through into next stage of the competition.
The windy conditions along with the five-to-six foot waves on offer at the primary event site challenged the top surfers from around the world as they took each other on in man-on-man battles to secure a place in the Quarter-finals.
Pitted against Melling in the fifth heat, Muscroft put on a pretty impressive performance to walk away with the win. He got busy in the opening minutes of the heat and managed to lock his first business-wave to post a 6.33 on the scoreboard. He immediately
followed it up with an impressive 7.27-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 13.60 points.
Melling did not finish too far behind his rival on the scoreboard after scoring a 6.67 and 5.93 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 12.60 points. As a result, he found himself out of contention for the event title.
The sixth heat saw Florence land arguably the best performance of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime rated event.
The Hawaiian surfer went through a series of average scores before locking his first business-wave to unload a monster air-reverse, earning a perfect 10 for the spectacular manoeuvre. Keeping the momentum going, he immediately backed it up with a 9.70-point
wave to net the highest heat-total of the event, 19.70.
“The wind was coming into the waves at the start of the heat and my board kept flying away,” Florence said. “But towards the end I landed a couple of fun ones. I was paddling out pretty nervous because he [Andino] stomps airs like nothing, he’s such a good
surfer. I just decided to free-surf the heat and it worked.”
Left stunned by his rival’s onslaught, Andino ended up getting eliminated from the competition after scoring a 7.00 and 4.17 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 11.17 points, consequently sending Florence through into the Quarter-finals.
Tags: