Tiago Pires and Royden Bryson survive Round 1 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011
The round of 96 (Round 1) of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 wrapped up with heat 24 on Wednesday, June 15th, at the beach-break of Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira, Portugal.
It was Portugal’s Tiago Pires who managed to shine the most during the four-way battle and advance to the next round full of confidence after bagging a convincing win. South Africa’s Royden Bryson successfully avoided elimination to reserve a spot for himself
in Round 2 as well. The mediocre performances of Brazil’s Bernardo and Portugal’s Filipe Jervis resulted in their elimination from the event-title contention.
The conditions prevailing at the primary event site could not be considered ideal, though they did offer enough juicy waves for the experienced and skilful surfers to unleash some of the technical tricks that they had in their arsenal.
There was one surfer in particular who read the conditions exceptionally well during the 30-minute heat and completely dominated the battle. It was none other than Pires, the Puerto Rican. He looked good since the very first minute and eventually asserted
his excellent form almost half-way through the heat by locking a wave and throwing down a string of turns and flips to earn a near-perfect score of 9.00.
Pires immediately followed it up with yet another impressive wave, this time earning 7.00 for the effort. The resultant two-wave total of 16.00 points remained unbeatable throughout the course of the heat and eventually earned him success, along with a slot
in the next round of the competition.
While Pires dominated the contest to clinch the first place, Bryson managed to survive the first round by securing the runner-up position in order to advance to the next round. He did not seem too comfortable out in the sea, evidently struggling to catch
the waves, but eventually managed to land a couple of goods ones and collecting 6.17 and 6.57 points off them. Even though he managed to stay alive for now, he definitely needed to up his game if he intended for a better result while facing a stronger competition
in the upcoming rounds.
Miranda finished in third position after earning a total of 8.94 points off his two waves. While his performance was not up to the scratch, the effort by Jervis turned out to be even more disappointing, finishing with a two-wave total of 6.26 points. The
inadequate scores and resulting bottom-two finish forced both the surfers out of the title contention, bringing the event to an early end.
With the 24 heats of round of 96 wrapping up, the sixth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event of the year moved on to its second round, the round of 48.
For updates on Round 2 of Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011, stay tuned to bettor.com.
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