Yadin Nicol and Bede Durbidge make the Round 3 cut at Rip Curl Pro Portugal
Australia’s Yadin Nicol and his fellow countryperson Bede Durbidge made it through into the third round of Rip Curl Pro Portugal, the eighth of ten stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour, after claiming top honours
in their respective Round 2 heats that went down at Supertubos in Peniche, Portugal, on Saturday, October 13.
Nicol got the better of Brazil’s Heitor Alves to earn his place in the third round, while the latter found his name added to the elimination list.
The eighth heat saw America’s Taylor Knox failing to keep his place in the contention for the event title after succumbing to Durbidge, who confidently advanced to Round 3.
The latest event on the elite tour was at the tail end of the season, thus likely to play an integral role in determining the eventual ASP World Champion as well as the surfers who are to compete for the coveted title during the next round.
The afternoon session on the first active day of the event saw the three-to-five foot waves continue to improve, something that allowed the surfers to cut even more loose as the day progressed.
After failing to make much of an impact during the morning session, Nicol and Alves found themselves standing on the edge, desperate to register a win to keep their names from getting added to the elimination list.
As the seventh heat got underway, Nicol wasted absolutely no time to get down to business, locking his first business-wave in the opening minutes of the one-on-one affair to post a 7.17 on the score-board.
He soon added an additional and even more impressive 8.93 to his account, thus moving to a heat-total of 16.10 points.
Alves responded with a 3.67 and 4.57 off his best-two waves, thus finishing with a heat-total of 8.24 points. The effort was hardly sufficient to bring Nicol’s lead under threat, thus allowing him to walk away with the win.
The eighth heat saw Durbidge get the better of the ever-so-experienced Knox to secure his place in the next round.
The Australian surfer started off slow, but gradually built momentum to eventually get his hands on a 6.83 and 7.80-point ride, which allowed him to finish with a heat-total of 14.63 points.
Knox, in response, collected an 8.33 and 4.00 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 12.33 points, which resulted in him falling short by 2.30 points and causing him to surrender the Round 3 spot to his rival.
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