Willian Cardoso and Kai Otton make it into the semifinals of Saquarema Surf Pro International
The third and fourth quarter-final of Saquarema Surf Pro International was held at Itauna beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, May 30th.
Brazil’s Willian Cardoso bested Australia’s Adam Robertson in the third quarter-final to qualify for the semi-finals. In the fourth quarter-final, Australia’s Kai Otton defeated Jesse Mendes to secure a spot in the next stage of the competition.
Even after a week of sending tough surfing conditions towards the surfers, mother-nature did not have a change of heart on Monday. The quarters-finals went on in intimidating 8-10 foot stormy waves with strong offshore winds and overcast weather conditions
prevailing at the event site.
The event organisers could not risk putting the contest on hold because of the fear of conditions becoming even worse later. Hence, the surfers were left with no choice but to enter the sea and attempt to come up with the best possible performance in order
to advance in the competition.
The third quarter-final pitted local surfer, Cardoso, against Australia’s Robertson. Both the surfers had reached this far by surviving the tough conditions of the previous days and overcoming a line-up of talented surfers.
Cardoso, the defending champion of the event, struggled to catch a good wave, though he did catch a few poor ones. His Australian rival, Robertson seemed even more out of sorts, evidently finding it difficult to adjust to the conditions.
The Australian surfer locked the first wave to score a 4.50 off it and soon followed it up with a 5-point wave to finish with 9.50 points. The Brazilian surfer responded with a 4.53 and 6-point wave in the final stages of the heat to clinch the win and secure
a place in the semi-finals.
In the last quarter-final, Brazil’s Mendes found himself facing the in-form Australian surfer, Otton, in a battle for survival. The local favourite, Mendes enjoyed the local knowledge of the waves and the support of the crowd. Even though it was a small
advantage under the given circumstances, it was an advantage nevertheless.
As the final kicked off, Otton looked to be at ease in the sea, catching wave after wave to attempt and pull something impressive off. However, the monstrous tides were proving to be too much for him. He eventually locked a good wave to throw down a combination
of sensational tricks to earn a first-wave score of 7.87. He then followed it up with another decent wave, scoring 5.73 points off it, to finish with a heat-total of 13.60.
Mendes found it hard to respond to the amazing performance by his rival. Unable to hold his own in the challenging weather and conditions, he struggled to catch waves and only managed a 3.83 off the first one. He came back strongly in the second wave, earning
7.57 from it, but it still was not enough as he ended up with a 2.20 deficit, consequently surrendering the victory to Otton and sending him off to the semi-finals.
The Saquarema Surf Pro International is the fourth Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime event in 2011 and is presented by Oakley and Coca Cola.
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