Ward, Andre and Andino prevail in opening round of Vans US Open of Surfing – Surfing news
America’s Chris Ward, his compatriot Kolohe Andino and Brazil’s Jadson Andre successfully advanced to the second round (Round of 48) of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Vans US Open of Surfing, which got underway at the Huntington Beach Pier in California, America, on Monday, July 22, 2013.
Brazil’s Adriano de Souza, South Africa’s Shaun Joubert and France’s Adrien Toyon made the Round 2 cut as well after securing second place in their respective Round 1 (Round of 96) heats.
The opening day of the latest ASP Prime event saw pulsing four-to-six foot waves gracing the primary event, setting up a nice stage for the heavily talented surfers from around the globe to battle it out for top honours.
The first heat of Round 1 pitted Ward against De Souza, his compatriot Gabriel Medina and Australia’s Tom Whitaker in a four-man battle for survival.
The American surfer clearly had his work cut out, but rose to the challenge and managed to walk away with the win, courtesy of his two-wave total of 12.83 points.
De Souza avoided elimination as well by securing second place through a heat-total of 12.14 points. Medina and Whitaker, however, found themselves making a premature exit from the competition after finishing with a heat-total of 10.77 and 6.60 points respectively.
The second heat saw Andre put on a strong performance to get the better of Joubert, America’s Luke Davis and Australia’s Adam Melling.
The 23-year-old Brazilian collected a couple of decent scores to eventually finish with a heat-total of 14.50 points, which remained unbeatable until the end.
“I was looking for the big sets close to the pier,” Andre said. “Some of the rights are good and I knew it was going to be a hard first round. It’s all about being on the set waves and Huntington is a tough place to compete. We saw it in Adriano’s (de Souza) heat and I wanted to make sure I was on the good waves. I’ve been spending a lot of time here, I always stay with friend here and I love Huntington.”
Joubert qualified for the next round in second place after registering a heat-total of 12.06 points, while Davis and Melling finished with a heat-total of 8.76 and 8.20 points respectively, thus getting eliminated from the competition.
The third heat saw the young American sensation Andino claim victory over Toyon, Australia’s Jay Thompson and Portugal’s Marlon Lipke.
Andino got off to a slow start, but eventually managed to make his way to a heat-total of 11.70 points, which proved sufficient to seal the fate of the battle in his favour.
Toyon and Thompson finished with an equal heat-total of 11.20 points, but a higher single-wave score resulted in the Frenchman securing second place and thus going through into the next round.
Lipke finished fourth after registering a heat-total of 9.10 points, thus joining Thompson on the elimination list.
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