Sebastien Zietz and Kai Otton move into Quiksilver Saquarema Prime Quarter-finals
Hawaii’s Sebastien Zietz and Australia’s Kai Otton successfully made their way into the Quiksilver Saquarema Prime Quarter-finals after claiming top honours in their respective Round 5 (Round of 16) heats that went down at the point-break of Itauna Beach
in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday, May 26.
The opening heat of Round 5 saw Zietz get the better of Brazil’s Hizunome Bettero, sending the latter packing as a result.
Otton prevailed over his fellow countryperson Perth Standlick to make his way into the next stage of the competition while removing his rival from the contention for the event title.
Resuming after a day of rest, the latest edition of Quiksilver Saquarema Prime presented by Coca-Cola promised to deliver plenty of adrenaline-pumping action throughout the day. The sunny skies and three-to-five foot waves at Itauna Beach seemed perfect
to put the most stylish and technical moves on display.
The first heat of Round 1 featured Zietz and Bettero in a man-on-man battle for a place in the Quarter-finals.
As the battle got underway, both the surfers got off to a slow start. Zietz eventually broke free of the shackles by locking a juicy wave to unload a series of powerful turns to post a 6.00 on the score-board. Managing to add another 5.10 points to his account
in the dying minutes of the heat, the Hawaiian surfer finished with a heat-total of 11.10 points.
Bettero did not have much luck with the waves either and eventually had to concede victory to his rival after finishing with a heat-total of 10.94 points, just 0.16 points behind that of his rival’s.
“My heat against Perth Standlick [AUS] was tense,” said Otton. “I had already faced him and won in this event, so I think he had some revenge in mind. What’s incredible is that there were great waves breaking here yesterday [Friday] but competition was called
off. But today, conditions are even better, with larger sets and things are classic again. The two waves I caught today were the best I’ve gotten this whole week. I hope tomorrow [Sunday] has good waves as well and I hope I can win again.”
The next battle saw the defending event champion Otton down his compatriot Standlick after scoring a 7.67 and an 8.60 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 16.27 points.
Standlick responded with a heat-total of 8.50 points, which comprised of a 2.67 and 5.83-point ride, resulting in a comprehensive victory for Otton.
Tags: