Royden Bryson and Damien Hobgood prevail in their respective heats: Third round of Super Surf International – Part 3
Done with the first six heats, Super Surf International moved to the seventh heat of round of 24 on Saturday.
The seventh heat pitted South Africa’s Royden Bryson against America’s Austin Ware. The stakes were high as the winner would stay alive in the competition while the loser would get eliminated. With hardly any room for error, the two surfers mounted their
surfboards and hit the sea.
Bryson quickly moved into the lead by earning a 5.00 for his first wave. After struggling to find another good score for the rest of the heat, he eventually added a 5.83 to his account on his last wave to finish with a two-wave total of 10.83 points.
Ware, on the other hand, was unable to cope with the demanding surfing conditions and struggled to get a good score. His two best waves earned him 2.73 and 3.83 points, causing him to lose to the South African surfer by a gap of 4.27 points. Bryson qualified
for the round of 12, while Ware was eliminated.
During the eighth heat, America’s Damien Hobgood took on Australia’s Yadin Nicol. The battle was expected to be thrilling as both surfers had shown an excellent form during the previous two rounds and were high on confidence.
Nicol, who had the honour of scoring a perfect 10 off a wave earlier in the competition, got off to a good start, scoring 7.67 points off his first wave. However, Hobgood responded with a 8.67 to grab the lead. He later followed it up with 7.53-point wave
to finish with the highest heat-total of the round, 16.20. Nicol required 8.54 off his final wave but fell short by 1.43 points and ended up surrendering victory to his rival. Consequently, he was eliminated, while Hobgood advanced to the round of 12.
The ninth heat of round of 24 saw Brazil’s in-form surfer Gabriel Medina against his countryman, Tomas Hermes.
Medina was clearly the stronger of the two surfers and he proved this by dominating his opponent in the heat. Locking the first wave, he executed a combination of amazing maneuvers to earn 7.77. He followed it up with another amazing score, 7.17, to finish
with a heat-total of 14.94.
Hermes response to his rival’s performance was nothing short of poor. His best waves only earned him 2.67 and 4.27, which was hardly expected of someone who had been able to advance so far in the Super Surf International after besting a line up of talented
surfers. His disappointing performance and runner-up position marked the end of the road for him in Santa Catarina, while allowing Medina to advance to the next round.
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