Richard Christie and Adrien Toyon enter Round 2 of Billabong Azores Islands Pro – ASP Prime Event
New Zealand’s Richard Christie completely stole the show during the sixth heat of Billabong Azores Islands Pro’s Round of 96 (Round 1), that went down at Praia de Santa Barbara in Sao Miguel, Portugal, on Wednesday, September 28.
The Round 1 win allowed him to confidently go through to the Round of 48 (Round 2). Reunion’s Adrien Toyon finished in runner-up place to extend his life in the competition as well. Germany’s Nic Von Rupp and Australia’s Nic Muscroft rounded out the third
and fourth places respectively, getting eliminated from the competition as a result.
The opening day of the ninth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the season was graced by high-performance waves, though the off-shore winds prevailing in the area presented some challenge to surfers.
However, the 22-year-old Christie adjusted to the conditions excellently and made the four-man battle completely one-sided. He got down to business as soon as the heat got under-way and locked a wave in the opening minutes to unload a series of exquisite
tricks, earning 8.67 points for the effort.
Instead of relaxing after a great start, he continued the determined hunt for another good score and eventually caught a real juicy wave in the later stages of the 30-minute battle to pull-off a string of impressive manoeuvres, adding a near-perfect 9.50
to his account and consequently moving to a heat-total of 18.17 points.
Toyon attempted to keep his Kiwi rival from walking away with a comfortable win, but failed to come up with the necessary scores. He fished a 7.33 off his first business wave and later collected an identical 7.33 off the second wave to finish with a heat-total
of 14.66 points. The commendable performance may not have earned him top honours, but it did serve to extend his life in the competition by confirming his place in the second round.
Rupp and Muscroft failed to read the conditions correctly and ended up giving a disappointing performance. While the Reunion-based surfer finished with a heat-total of 10.40 points to take third place, the Australian finished last after scoring 5.00 and
4.83 points off his top-two waves for a heat-total of 9.83 points. Both surfers got eliminated from the competition because of the lacklustre performance that they exhibited.
The remaining heats of Round 1 are scheduled to continue on Thursday, September 29.
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