Sarah Mason defeats Sage Erickson in fourth quarter-final of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro
The fourth quarter-final of Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro wrapped up at the Praia do Guincho beach in Estoril, Portugal, on Saturday, June 11th.
New Zealand’s Sarah Mason emerged triumphant from the heat, bringing America’s Sage Erickson’s event title pursuit to a premature end.
Both surfers had remained pretty impressive and quite consistent over the last few heats. Even though the odds were against them, with two-foot tides and strong cross shore winds on Saturday, the two surfers were among the few who had managed to hold their
own and steadily advanced through the tournament.
The surfing conditions continued to remain challenging during the fourth quarter-final as well. While Mason managed to adjust to the conditions to some extent, Erickson was unable to read them properly and consequently had a miserable time out in the sea,
which eventually played an integral role in determining the fate of the heat.
Once the battle for the last remaining semi-final slot commenced, Mason began to catch wave after wave, hoping to secure a good score. Almost halfway through the heat, she was eventually awarded for her effort. She locked a good wave to throw down a combination
of amazing flips and turns and ended up earning an impressive score of 7.25 from the judges. She immediately followed it up with another decent wave, scoring 5.50 points off it, to finish with a two-wave total of 12.75 points.
Erickson, on the other hand, was clearly having a hard time catching waves, let alone getting a good score off them. The conditions apparently seemed to be too much for her to handle and rather than fighting them, it looked like she was succumbing to them.
However, she did manage to earn a couple of decent scores off the few waves that she successfully locked. Scoring 5.75 points off her first wave and 5.05 off her second, she finished with a heat-total of 10.80 points.
The 1.95-point lead over her American rival granted Mason the top honours along with the last remaining semi-final slot.
The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star Estoril Surf & Music Billabong Girls Pro is the fifth of seven stops on ASP Women’s Star Tour and second of four stops on ASP Women’s European Tour.
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