Royden Bryson and Yadin Nicol victorious: Second round of Super Surf International – Part 4
The Super Surf International competition continued at Praia da Vila on Wednesday with the seventh heat of round of 48.
With mother-nature not showing the slightest bit of cooperation to the event, the surfers found themselves facing tough conditions. Even though the waves were around four-to-six foot only, the strong offshore winds made it extremely challenging for the athletes
to ride them.
The seventh heat kicked off under such conditions, pitting South Africa’s Royden Bryson against America’s Damien Hobgood and Nat Young, along with Brazil’s Leandro Bastos.
Bryson had a hard time catching waves during the heat, but eventually managed to lock a couple to get a score of 7.17 and 4.43, ending the heat with a total of 11.60 points. Though the score seemed insufficient to guarantee victory, it actually turned out
to be more than enough and earned the South African a convincing victory over his rivals. Clinching the top position, he advanced to the round of 24.
Hobgood, who had remained impressive during his heat in the first round, did not seem nearly as impressive on Wednesday. He still managed to secure the second position after earning 4.77 and 5.13 off his two waves, consequently qualifying for the next round.
The rising star from California, Young, failed to hold his own in the challenging tides and eventually finished in third place with a score of 8.93. Bastos was not able to cope with the conditions either and rounded out the fourth position, much to the disappointment
of the local crowd. Both Young and Bastos have been eliminated from the Super Surf International.
In the eighth heat, Australia’s Yadin Nicol took on America’s Austin Ware, France’s Maxime Huscenot and Hawaii’s Kiron Jabour.
After witnessing Nicol’s domination in his first round heat, he was unarguably at the top of his game and a favourite to prevail in the second round. He managed to live up to the expectations and bagged yet another heat victory. He earned 6.33 off his first
wave and followed it up with an amazing 8.60 off his second wave to finish with a heat-total of 14.93 points. It would be interesting to see if he is able to continue his event-domination in the next round as well.
Ware put up a commendable fight to keep Nicol from walking away with victory, but the task proved to be too much for him and he eventually surrendered the victory to the Australian, settling for runner-up position himself. He scored 7.60 on his first wave
and 5.77 on his second to finish with a two-wave total of 13.37 points. The second-place finish has allowed him to stay alive in the competition.
Huscenot and Jabour rounded out the bottom-two positions with 12.04 and 9.00 points respectively. Both the surfers no longer remain in contention for the event title.
For more updates on Super Surf International’s round of 48 heats, stay tuned to Bettor.com.
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