Philip Goold and Cody Thompson crawl to victory in Round 1 of Vans Pier Classic – Surfing News
America’s Philip Goold and his fellow countryman Cody Thompson walked away with top honours from their respective Round 1 (Round of 144) heats of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Vans Pier Classic that kicked-off at Huntington Beach
Pier in California, America, on Wednesday, March 28.
The successful result in the opening round of the event served to take both the surfers into the second round (Round of 128). America’s Tayler Brothers and PJ Raia also made their way into the next round after clinching runner-up place in the first and second
heat respectively.
The latest ASP star event was playing host to a huge field of professional surfers, which included veteran competitors, international up and coming talent as well as local standouts. The clean two-to-four foot waves on offer at Huntington Beach put the skills
and experience of the surfers to test, making them work really hard to ensure their survival.
The first heat saw Goold square off with Brothers, Mark Dawson and Dane Zaun in a four-man battle.
As the battle got underway, all four surfers struggled to adjust to the surfing conditions at hand. There were very few decent waves on offer, forcing the surfers to try and get something out of the relatively flat waves.
The 20-year-old Goold eventually managed to get to a heat-total of 9.70 points. The modest heat-total held up until the end to bring him victory and take him through into the next round.
Brothers also advanced through into the next round after finishing with a two-wave total of 8.54 points.
Dawson and Zaun found themselves out of contention for the event-title after rounding out the bottom-two positions with a heat-total of 8.44 and 5.17 points respectively.
The second heat turned out to be yet another low-scoring affair, with Thompson, Raia, Rob Kelly and Eala Stewart all having little luck with the waves.
Thompson eventually managed to walk away with the win after posting a 3.83 and 5.50 on the scoreboard to finish with a heat-total of 9.33 points.
Raia successfully made the Round 2 cut as well after finishing with a heat-total of 8.00 points, which included a 2.83 and 5.17-point wave.
Kelly finished third with a heat-total of 7.60 points, whereas Stewart rounded out the fourth position with a two-wave total of 2.74 points. Both the surfers consequently got eliminated from the competition.
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