Taj Burrow and Matt Wilkinson earn a shot at the O’Neill Coldwater Classic Title
Australia’s Taj Burrow and his fellow countryperson Matt Wilkinson walked away with top honours from their respective semi-final heats at the O’Neill Coldwater Classic, the ninth of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship
Tour, which continued at the main point-break of Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, California, on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
Burrow got the better of South Africa’s Travis Logie in the first semi-final to earn himself a shot at the title, while Wilkinson made it through into the final after downing French Polynesia’s Michel Bourez in the second semi-final.
The challenging conditions on offer at the primary event on the final day of the competition was resulting in a series of adrenaline-pumping battles and thrilling finishes, with the elite ASP surfers pushing themselves beyond limit to try and keep themselves
alive in the contention for the event title.
Looking in great touch since the very first of the competition, Burrow continued to come off as real impressive during his semi-final battle against Logie.
As the battle got underway, the 34-year-old Australian wasted very little time in stamping his authority over his rival. Locking a juicy wave in the opening minutes of the heat, he unloaded a series of exquisite tricks to earn a 7.17 for the effort.
Keeping the momentum going, Burrow added an additional 7.40 points to his account, thus getting to a heat-total of 14.57 points.
Logie got off to a slow start and despite showing strong determination in the later stages of the heat, he only managed to get to a heat-total of 12.40 points, which comprised of a 3.90 and 8.50-point ride.
The South African surfer may have been disappointed because of faltering at such a crucial moment, but he was glad to have made it so far in the event.
“I’m pretty stoked with how I surfed in this event,” Logie said. “I’m really disappointed because I had one really good one in that heat and I feel like I just needed an average one to make that heat. Taj has been ripping though and congratulations to him.”
The second semi-final turned out to be a pretty one-sided affair, with Wilkinson completely the show through his phenomenal performance that completely over-shadowed his rival’s effort during the course of the battle.
The Australian surfer scored a massive 9.23 off his first business-wave and later backed it up with an 8.50-point ride, thus getting to a heat-total of 17.73 points.
Despite putting in a great deal of effort, Bourez only managed to get his hands on a 7.33 and 4.77-point wave, thus having to settle for a heat-total of 12.10 points.
As a result, Wilkinson collected a comfortable win to advance into the final, where he was to face Burrow in a battle for the event title.
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