Stab’s Picks for the Hurley Pro Video Trials (Semis)

And then there were four men left in the Hurley Pro Video Trials: Dusty Payne, Ian Gentil, Carlos Munoz and Pat Gudauskas. The last round saw social media hypebeast Cam Richards aggressively schooled by the Costa Rican passion of Carlos’ fanbase, and a late surge from Dusty to topple fellow Hawaiian Albee Layer. What does this round hold? (watch the heats and vote here) **** Dusty Payne vs Ian GentilStab’s pick: Dusty Payne Holy shit, Dusty Payne sure did a crazy good job of staggering his clips with restraint, cause his two waves in the semifinal round are absolute bangers. Clip one features a fully-committed full rote off the first hit, and clip two is combination soup of the most flavoursome kind. Gold to Ian’s relaxed Mex point silver, f’certain. There’s been similarly-sized pushes behind these two gents in earlier rounds, so we may just have a goddamn heat on our hands. Removing the most-popular-kid-in-school element tho, this is Dusty all day and all night. **** Carlos Munoz vs Patrick GudauskasStab’s Pick: Patrick Gudauskas We’re realists, and fact is Carlos Munoz has the whole of Costa Rica behind him – he’s the first surfer to get into a five figure vote count. And, he deserves his country’s backing; he is currently their best surfer. But quite simply, Patty’s two clips in this round are better than those entered by Carlos. There’s a lot of heat on Carlos’ second clip but his first feels a little weak. Pat, though? The roter in clip one has strong powers of re-watchability, and the intense lunge of the second clip air is hot butter. ****