Patrick Gudauskas and Gabriel Medina win their heats: First round of Super Surf International – Part 9
Santa Catarina was playing host to the fifth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the year, Super Surf International. The event had kicked off with an exciting first round on Tuesday, May 31st, delivering thrilling surfing
action in the first 16 heats and the same level of excitement was expected in the remaining heats of round of 96 on Wednesday.
The conditions again turned out to be challenging, but the surfers were well equipped with experience and skills to take the challenge head on.
The second day of Super Surf International kicked off with the 17th heat of round of 96. American Patrick Gudauskas was surfing against Brazil’s Leonardo Neves and two Australians, Jack Freestone and Stu Kennedy.
The American got off to a good start, scoring a 7.00 off his very first wave of the heat. He caught his second wave in the final moments and executed a combination of mind-blowing manoeuvres to get a 8.67 from the judges, consequently finishing with a heat-total
of 15.67 points. None of his rivals was able to best his score and he comfortably made it into the second rounding of the competition.
The local surfer, Neves, put up a determined and commendable fight to get to victory; he ended up short of it in the end. He earned 7.90 from his first wave and required 7.78 from his second wave in order to land the first place. However, he only managed
to get 6.70 off his second wave and ended up finishing in runner-up position. He still remains in the contention for the event title, much to the joy of the local fans.
Freestone and Kennedy both were unable to match the performances of their rivals and ended up falling to third and fourth places respectively. Both stand eliminated from the competition.
The 18th heat pitted Brazil’s Gabriel Medina against three of his countrymen, namely Tomas Hermes, Junior Faria and Jano Belo.
Medina locked a wave in the middle stages of the heat to score 8.57 from it and followed it up with a 8.00 waves to finish with a total of 16.57 points. None of his rivals was able to get close to his score and he ended up clinching a convincing victory
to advance to the next round of the Super Surf International.
Hermes scored 5.83 points on his first wave and followed it up with an impressive 7.10 wave to finish with a total of 12.93 points and secure the second place, along with a position in the round of 48.
Faria and Belo rounded out the bottom-two and no longer remain in contention for the event title.
More updates on Super Surf Pro will be coming to bettor.com. Stay tuned.
Tags: