Shaun Joubert and Gony Zubizarreta off to an ideal start at the Reef Hawaiian Pro
The first of three stops on the 30th Anniversary Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, Reef Hawaiian Pro, kicked-off with South Africa’s Shaun Joubert and Spain’s Gony Zubizarreta claiming victory in their respective Round 1 (Round of 128) heats that
went down at the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii on Thursday, November 15.
While Joubert claiming top honours in the first heat, Hawaii’s Torrey Meister clinched second place to accompany the South African surfer into the second round (Round of 96), whereas Hawaii’s Makai McNamara and Eala Stewart got eliminated from the competition
after rounding out the bottom-two positions.
The second heat saw Zubizarreta make the Round 2 cut, accompanied by Basque Country’s Aritz Aranburu, who finished second. Hawaii’s Kiron Jabour finished third, whereas his compatriot had to settle for fourth place. Both the surfers were consequently removed
from the contention for the event title.
With a prize purse of #250,000 on offer and 128 extremely skilled surfers from 15 countries competing against each other to get walk away with the biggest slice and top honours, there was plenty of adrenaline-pumping action in store for the fans of the sport.
After a delayed started to the proceedings, the opening heat of the Reef Hawaiian Pro pitted Joubert against Meister, McNamara and Stewart in a four-man battle for the Round 2 spot.
The South African surfer pulled off a couple of impressive tricks to post a 6.00 and 4.83 on the score-board, thus finishing with a heat-total of 10.83 points. The score held up until the end to see him off to victory.
Meister did not miss out on the top spot by much, registering a heat-total of 10.17 points. His effort proved sufficient to take him through into the next round as well.
McNamara and Stewart put on pretty ordinary performances and only managed to get to a heat-total of 7.17 and 5.17 points respectively, thus getting eliminated from the competition.
The second heat featured an exquisite performance by Zubizarreta as he got the better of his competitors in a four-man battle.
The Spain surfer collected a 7.33 off his first business-wave and went on to back it up with a 5.93-point ride, thus registering a winning heat-total of 13.26 points.
Aranburu also made the Round 2 cut after finishing with a heat-total of 11.50 points, which comprised of a 6.17 and 5.33-point ride.
Jabour finished third with a heat-total of 9.03 points, whereas Ho filled the bottom position after only managing to get to a heat-total of 5.77 points.
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