Travis Logie takes down Raoni Monteiro to move into Round 3 of Billabong Rio Pro
South Africa’s Travis Logie managed to get through into the third round at the latest edition of Billabong Rio Pro, the third of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, after claiming top honours in the ninth heat of
Round 2 at the main event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, May 14.
The Durban-based surfer took the win over Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro to secure his place in Round 3 while bringing the competition to an early end for the latter.
After a rest of four days, the elite ASP surfers brought their surfboards to the primary event site to resume their pursuit of the event title. While the first round of the competition had taken place in tricky one-to-two foot waves at the alternate event
venue of Arpoador, the second round took place in challenging four-to-six foot barrel. It was definitely not easy to adjust to the barrelling conditions after surfing in flat conditions during the previous heat. As a result, very few surfers were able to put
on performances that they could be proud of.
The ninth heat of Round 2 saw Logie and Monteiro take each other on for the Round 3 spot. The lacklustre performance by the two surfers had forced them to take the longer and tougher road to Round 3 and as it turned out, fate had brought them to a point
where only of them could keep chasing the event title.
As the heat got underway, both the surfers got off to a pretty slow start, looking quite uneasy in the inconsistent tides. Almost midway through the battle, Logie locked his first business-wave to throw a few scratchy turns to post a 3.83 on the score-board.
Keeping the momentum going, he immediately backed it up with a 5.50-point ride to reach a heat-total of 9.33 points.
Monteiro enjoyed a little bit of advantage due to his local knowledge of the waves, but failed to capitalise on it. Looking as uncomfortable as his rival during the course of the battle, the Brazilian surfer only managed to collect a 3.50 and 2.20-point
wave to finish with a heat-total of 5.70 points. The 3.63-point deficit led him to concede victory to Logie, sending the South African into the next round of Billabong Rio Pro.
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