The Top 5 performers of 2011 ASP World Tour – Part 3
Adriano de Souza
Ever since entering the elite Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Top 34 in 2006, the 24-year-old Brazilian has been dropping jaws and raising heartbeats with his brilliance and ridiculous speed in the waves. With each passing year, he returned to
the ASP World Tour wiser and more threatening than before, until eventually making his place permanent in the Top 10 since 2008.
De Souza's competitiveness sets him apart from others. The six-year experience on the World stage has made him quite knowledgeable of the game, about the line-ups, the scores and etc. There are very few surfers who have contested against the legendary Kelly
Slater and walked away with a happy ending. The young Brazilian managed to accomplish the feat just a few years into the elite Tour. Indeed, he is one of the most promising surfers that are taking the surfing competitions by storm.
So far, the 2011 ASP World Tour has been going great for the Guaruja Sao Paulo-based surfer. He made his excellent form apparent in the very first stop of the season, Quiksilver Pro, which went down at Gold Coast in Australia. He made quick work of his competition
in the early rounds of the event, though a small hiccup in the fourth round got him relegated to Round 5 where he faced Australia’s Taj Burrow for a quarter-final spot. De Souza came up with an exceptional performance, but the local surfer still managed to
walk away with the win, eliminating the Brazilian from the event.
Rip Curls at Pro Beach in Australia, which was the second stop of the 2011 season, saw De Souza in the best of forms and made him seem unstoppable. His list of victims in the initial rounds even included Australia’s two-time ASP World Champion, Mick Fanning.
However, the biggest highlight of the event was the Brazil’s quarter-final battle against the surfing icon, Slater.
For the second time since his inception in the elite Tour, De Souza managed to take down the biggest athlete in the sport and he did it in quite a convincing manner, completely dominating the heat. However, Australia’s Joel Parkinson managed to bring the
rampaging Brazilian to a stop in the semi-finals, forcing him to settle for third place.
The third stop of the 2011 ASP World Tour brought De Souza back home to Brazil for Billabong Rio Pro. The previous two stops may have seen the Brazilian sensation get a start but eventually faltering, the latest event turned out to be quite different. After
drilling through the initial rounds as usual, De Souza kept the momentum going in the quarter-finals and semi-finals to finally get a title shot. Facing Burrow in such a pressure situation, De Souza managed to hold his nerves and check and came up with a phenomenon
performance to see himself through to victory.
Coming to Jeffreys Bay in South Africa for the fourth stop of the tour, Billabong Pro, De Souza failed to show the same level of confidence and vigour that had made him really stand out in the previous three stops. He got off to a shaky start and crawled
his way to the third round, where he was eventually ousted from the competition by compatriot Alejo Muniz, making him settle for a 13th place finish, his worst of the season so far.
Despite a disappointing South African stop, De Souza has clearly been one of the most consistent performers in the season so far, which has allowed him to sit in third place in the current ASP World Tour Rankings. It would be quite interesting to see how
the rest of the season unfolds for him.
To be continued in Part 4.
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