Patrick Gudauskas, Granger Larsen and Adriano de Souza triumph in Round 1 at Mr Price Pro Ballito
America’s Patrick Gudauskas, Hawaii’s Granger Larsen and Brazil’s Adriano de Souza prevailed in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito that resumed at the Willards Beach in
KwaDukuza, South Africa, on Wednesday, July 4.
All three surfers consequently moved into the second round (Round of 48) of the competition. They were accompanied into the next round by America’s Eric Geiselman, Brazil’s Leonardo Neves and France’s Marc Lacomare, who collect runner-up finish in the 10th,
11th and 12th heat respectively.
The second day of the competition saw tricky half-metre waves breaking at the primary event site. There were plenty of potent scoring opportunities on offer for the surfers to put on impressive performances, thus leading to an anticipation of a day full
of enthralling surfing action.
The 10th heat pitted the defending champion and current ASP World No. 31 Gudauskas against Geiselman, Australia’s Nic Muscroft and South Africa’s Royden Bryson.
The American surfer put on an impressive performance, making more-or-less the correct decisions and selecting the best waves of the heat to earn a 6.50 and 7.50 off his best-two waves and eventually finish with a heat-total of 14.00 points.
“It’s definitely all about hitting the ground running,” Gudauskas said. “Thankfully they called it on today because I was itching to get in the water. It was fun, and there was a lot of opportunity to ride waves.”
Geiselman finished in second place with a heat-total of 12.26 points, advancing through into the next round as well.
Muscroft and Bryson finished with a heat-total of 12.04 and 9.20 points respectively to find themselves eliminated from the competition.
The 11th heat saw Larsen pull off a series of exquisite manoeuvres on a couple of juicy waves to finish with a decisive heat-total of 15.77 points, thus getting the better of Neves, his compatriot Charlie Brown and France’s Joan Duru.
Neves qualified for the next round as well after finishing with a heat-total of 13.83 points, which served to put him in second place.
Duru finished with a heat-total of 9.97 points, while Brown rounded out the bottom-position with a heat-total of 8.43 points, consequently find themselves making a premature exit from the competition.
The 12th heat of Round 1 featured a phenomenal performance by ASP World No.4 and event top seed De Souza. The Brazilian went on a rampage during his heat to completely dominate the four-man battle. Navigating through the waves to select the two
most promising scoring opportunities, he posted an 8.00 and 8.90 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 16.90 points.
Lacomare finished in runner-up place with a two-wave total of 13.97 points to accompany De Souza into the next round.
Australia’s Lincoln Taylor and South Africa’s David Weare rounded out the bottom-two positions after finishing with a heat-total of 9.73 and 9.40 points respectively, consequently making a premature exit from the competition.
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