After four consecutive lay-days, the Billabong Pro, Rio returned to Barra Da Tijuca for round two (and a coupla round three heats) today. Barra was sometimes hollow and sometimes mean, with the days best scores all going to clean tunnel-rides. Adam Melling was the day’s unlikely hero with a heat total of 17 outta 20, which included a 9.67 barrel. “I was pretty happy with that one,” Adam said. “I snuck out of that first one that was a bit of a close out and on my way back out that other one doubled up real well and ran off. I was stoked to get that one on the way back out. It was sucking out off of the bank pretty well. It feels really good to get good waves in a heat. They’re definitely out there.”
Unsurprisingly, Johnny Florence was another one to find diamonds in the rough. “It was a really hard heat and I was so tired,” he said of his 16.20 win over Willian Cardoso. “We’ve been sitting around these last couple of days. There really haven’t been any waves and then we were straight into these conditions. I try to take the heats as a free surf. It seems like I surf the best when I’m having fun, but obviously you’ve got the jersey on and you know you need to finish your waves off.”
Johnny was also thrilled to make it past an equal 25th placing after a slow start on day one. “I had a really bad heat at Arpoador the other day and I was kind of nervous going into this one,” Johnny said. “I just wanted to make it through. Willian is such a good surfer and I’m just happy to make it out of that round.”
Michel Bourez showed similar patience to his round one heat at Snapper Rocks, waiting til the very end of the heat to scoop a heat-winning cave. “I was waiting for that one for so long,” Michel said. “I got my first wave at the beginning and got my second one at the last second. I love these conditions, it fits my surfing. I like to wait for the right ones and get the big barrels. Sometimes you have to go big and do big turns, but I expect to find the barrels today.”
If you wanna see some heat replays, check out Billy’s analyser on the contest site here. Contest should hopefully resume tomorrow at 7am.
BILLABONG RIO PRO ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Tiago Pires (PRT) 10.40 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 6.40
Heat 2: Michel Bourez (PYF) 8.70 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 8.53
BILLABONG RIO PRO ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 10.83 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 7.17
Heat 2: Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.10 def. Tomas Hermes (BRA) 12.66
Heat 3: John John Florence (HAW) 16.20 def. Willian Cardoso (BRA) 7.16
Heat 4: Heitor Alves (BRA) 6.00 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 5.47
Heat 5: Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 9.83 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 7.46
Heat 6: Brett Simpson (USA) 9.33 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 8.60
Heat 7: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.00 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 2.64
Heat 8: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 11.36 def. Yadin Nicol (AUS) 7.97
Heat 9: Travis Logie (ZAF) 9.33 def. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 5.70
Heat 10: Tiago Pires (PRT) 10.90 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 10.20
Heat 11: Kolohe Andino (USA) 12.16 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 6.50
Heat 12: Adam Melling (AUS) 17.00 def. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 14.26
