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Kelly Slater (USA), was impressive in the powerful clean beachbreaks at Woolamai and scored a very convincing round 1 win over Chris Ward (USA) and Jamie O'Brien (Haw).
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SPC Fruit Pro
Rip Curl Pro
Rip Curl GromSearch International Final
Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia
March 21-April 1
LIVE WEBCAST & LIVE RIP CURL PRO WEBSITE: www.ripcurl.com and www.aspworldtour.com
FANNING SHUNTS IRONS INTO ROUND TWO OF THE RIP CURL PRO
Tuesday, March 29th, 2005 - IT was a great day for surfing giant Rip Curl today. Besides taking the Rip Curl Pro on the road without surfing a single heat of the event at Bells Beach for the first time in 33 years, and finally starting the event in good waves at Phillip Island's Woolamai Beach, their number one team rider Mick Fanning relegated reigning world champion Andy Irons to the elimination second round today. They could not have asked for more, but then the ocean certainly owed them after a frustrating week of waiting for waves
Currently rated number one on the Foster's Men's World Tour after his stunning comeback victory in the first WCT of the season on the Gold Coast, it was the second time in as many encounters that Fanning has defeated Andy Irons, the previous time being in their man-on-man quarterfinal of that same opening event.
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As the tide filled in at Woolamai Beach, epic 3-4ft lefts and rights peeled across the sandbars while the Top 44 lit up the beach with their radical surfing.
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Irons looked to be comfortably in control through the majority of today's round one heat, methodically linking from outside and through to the Woolamai inside reforms. In typical form, he started strongly, opening with 7.33 and backing that up with a solid 8.17.
After falling on his first wave, and then waiting quite a while for his next opportunity, Fanning answered with his own 8.17.
Waiting patiently, well towards the end of the heat, Fanning then fielded a good right-hander which he worked solidly to earn 7.97, and took the lead in the three-man exchange leaving Irons in need of 7.17, and wildcard Dunn hunting a combination.
With just minutes left, the world champion then took another right, and executed a high flying re-entry, but then the wave closed down, leaving him no scoring options.
Paddling into a following wave from out the back, Fanning sealed the deal firing straight off the bottom out of a high speed floater and into a vertical re-entry which raised cheers from the crowd and an 8.43 from the judges. The final horn blew with Irons then in need an 8.44 ride.
"It was a generous score for just two manoeuvres, but I guess they liked it up there," grinned Fanning after the heat.
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Darren O'Rafferty (Aus) was in great form posting a strong 15.43 round 1 winning score over Victor Ribas (Bra) and Mark Occhilupo (Aus).
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Fanning already had the exchange wrapped before that wave after a heat of dogged commitment where he refused to be shaken by the early lead and confidence of our world champion. It was another display that marks him as a serious world title contender for 2005.
"It was a bit of a tricky one. I just waited trying to catch up with a couple of decent ones towards the end and it paid off, "said Fanning summarising his outlook on the win.
"Even though the heat was a little slow for waves, I definitely had fun. It was good just to go surfing again! It's the first time I've come to Bells and not had a surf at Bells or Winkipop, so it was a little frustrating, but they've definitely done the right thing moving the Rip Curl Pro here to Phillip Island," continued Fanning.
Conditions varied almost continually throughout the day at Woolamai, but both of Florida's Hobgood brothers handled the heavy tidal influence on the break, and produced outstanding performances in a packed day of surfing action.
Both Damien and CJ Hobgood paddled extensively back and forth over the two banks which organisers allowed the surfers to select their waves from, despite the fact that they were several hundred metres apart.
Damien scored the top wave score of the day, a 9.50 for a long and clean right-hander that ran a wave face solidly overhead. The agile goofy footer worked it on his backhand for all it was worth. He also scored the highest heat score of the day with a back-up score of 9.0.
"My 9.5 was one of those rights that was really clean," said Damien. "I was able to hook it three times, and every time I came out of my bottom turn and looked back up at it, the wall was still there and running. I just kept hitting it! I was stoked"
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Corey Lopez (USA) surfed a high scoring round 1 heat but was defeated by Bede Durbridge (Aus). Lopez will now face Luke Steadman (Aus) in his round 2 heat.
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Not to be outdone by his 'little' brother who is about one minute younger than him, 2001 world champion CJ Hobgood produced two rides in the eight point range, as well as a 9.0 for his second last wave to come out on top of a closely fought tussle with Trent Munro, the duelling pair leaving Brazilian Renan Rocha distant and in need of a combination of rides.
"I'm so tired right now. Sitting around at Bells for nine days, has not helped my cardio,'" smiled CJ after his victory.
Western Australia's Taj Burrow was another standout today, producing an 8.0 and an 8.37 after sitting patiently for the right waves in his 30-minute heat with Bruce Irons (HAW) and rookie Tim Reyes (USA).
The heat started with Burrow skilfully working one of the bigger waves of the morning, only to see the younger Irons pigdog off takeoff to pull in and produce an 8.33 on the following wave.
"We all know Bruce can pretty much make a pit of nothing," commented Burrow with a smile after his win.
"That wave was pretty much a closeout, but I knew he'd squeak out of it somehow - and he got a big score. That's okay! I just had to pick another good one. I was glad I showed some patience instead of trouncing on anything that moves," said Burrow.
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Mick Fanning (Aus) flew through his round 1 heat, defeating current world champion Andy Irons (Haw) and Ben Dunn (Aus). Fanning advanced to round 3, Irons and Dunn go to round 2.
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As the tide shifted throughout the day, various heats had to cope with some fattish conditions, especially during the middle of the draw, heats nine and 10 particularly plagued, but bearing in mind what we had just endured back at Bells, nobody was complaining.
Last season's runner-up Joel Parkinson (AUS) won his heat against Tom Whitaker (AUS) and Brazilian wildcard Jean Da Silva with the heat score of 12.30, the lowest winning aggregate of the day.
"There was just no bottom turn possible off them, or anything to hit off the top either - but at least we had waves! I just hope I get a better tidal window in round three because heaps of the waves looked great today," said Parkinson.
Former six-times world champion Kelly Slater finally turned up in Victoria today after staying at his adopted home of Avalon on Sydney's northern beaches for the past week, and surfed in the heat after Parkinson.
While the rest of the Foster's Men's World Tour suffered the waiting game at Bells Beach, Slater has been surfing the great swells on the NSW coast, anywhere between Shellharbour in the south, and the Central Coast to the north. Being late worked for him again today.
"I had a quick warm up and paddled out with only about a minute to go," said Slater. "The other guys were all the way out the back, and it broke wide of them. I caught it two-thirds of the way out. As it turned out it was actually the best wave that I caught in the heat."
"I hadn't actually ridden my short board since the comp on the Gold Coast - I didn't want to break it. It felt kind of strange on that wave, but I got a few sections that stood up. It was kind of mushy out there - you had to kind of fake it... just get up near the top of the wave and try and push the tail around," he continued.
It was not a good day for the South American crew today, every one of the six seeded Brazilians, plus young trials wildcard Jean Da Silva, all relegated to round two.
"I love this place! Great beach breaks," grinned Rio de Janeiro's Victor Ribas returning up the beach from a free surf his morning.
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Bede Durbridge (Aus), was in fine form in the excellent waves at Woolamai, winning his round 1 heat to advance to round 3 while Marcelo Nunes (Bra) and Corey Lopez (USA) were relegated to round 2.
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As it happened, Ribas produced one of the highest wave scores of the day, an 8.67 for a long left hander that started working directly out front of the judges' tower on the incoming mid-tide. He worked it impressively, rail to rail down the line.
Unfortunately for Ribas, he was drawn against Darren O'Rafferty (AUS) who produced a number of equally sound rides on the right-handers off the same peak. Mark Occhilupo finished third in the same heat.
South African rookie Travis Logie started fast and furious in the final heat of round one, producing an 8.83 for working a good right top-to-bottom. His East London elder Greg Emslie was drawn in the same heat, but Australia's Daniel Wills ended up producing an awesome performance with three strong rides, including a 9.10 to outpoint the Springboks.
Rookie Bede Durbidge (AUS) continued his stunning opening form from the first event of the season on the Gold Coast, with a strong win round one win over Cory Lopez (USA) and Brazil's Marcelo Nunes. He included a 9.00 and 8.73 in his tally.
California's Taylor Knox scored the second highest wave score of the day, a 9.4 for a typically committed top to bottom display on a good right, but he was drawn in the highest heat score of the day, his adversaries Jake Paterson (AUS) and Lee Winkler (AUS) both counting rides in the eight point range.
After completing round one late this afternoon, organisers have pushed on with the first six heats of the second round. THERE WILL BE A FURTHER REPORT LATER TODAY WITH THE RESULTS OF ROUND TWO HEATS SURFED TODAY.
Round Two heats to be surfed this afternoon:
(1st>Rnd3; 2nd=33rdUSD$3600/225 points)
H1: Andy Irons (HAW) vs Ben Dunn (AUS)
H2: Luke Egan (AUS) vs Jean Da Silva (BRZ)
H3: Nathan Hedge (AUS) vs Jamie O'Brien (HAW)
H4: Sunny Garcia (HAW) vs Renan Rocha (BRZ)
H5: Peterson Rosa (BRZ) vs Kirk Flintoff (AUS)
H6: Mark Occhilupo (AUS) vs Tim Reyes (USA)
Get online at www.ripcurl.com to keep up to date with the latest developments in the Rip Curl Pro.
Pray for surf!
RESULTS
ROUND ONE HEATS:
(1st>Rnd3; 2nd & 3rd re-seeded into Rnd2)
H1: Dean Morrison (AUS) 13.50; Raoni Monteiro (BRZ) 11.74; Peterson Rosa (BRZ) 8.83
H2: Damien Hobgood (USA) 18.50; Toby Martin (AUS) 10.83; Fred Patacchia Jnr (HAW) 7.47
H3: Troy Brooks (AUS) 15.17; Sunny Garcia (HAW) 13.64; Shea Lopez (USA) 5.67
H4: Richard Lovett (AUS) 16.66; Nathan Hedge (AUS) 13.20; Luke Stedman (AUS) 7.77
H5: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.37; Bruce Irons (HAW) 14.83; Tim Reyes (USA) 7.23
H6: Phillip Macdonald (AUS) 14.43; Kirk Flintoff (AUS) 13.83;Luke Egan (AUS) 11.53
H7: CJ Hobgood (USA) 17.67; Trent Munro (AUS) 15.60; Renan Rocha (BRZ) 10.00
H8: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.60; Andy Irons (HAW) 15.50; Ben Dunn (AUS) 11.66
H9: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.30; Tom Whitaker (AUS) 11.43; Jean Da Silva (BRZ) 10.07
H10: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.10; Jamie O'Brien (HAW) 9.10; Chris Ward (USA) 7.33
H11: Jake Paterson (AUS) 16.57; Taylor Knox (USA) 16.07; Lee Winkler (AUS) 14.93
H12: Darren O'Rafferty (AUS) 15.43; Victor Ribas (BRZ) 14.84; Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 10.50
H13: Michael Lowe (AUS) 15.27; Neco Padaratz (BRZ) 14.27; Tim Curran (USA) 11.57
H14: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 17.73; Cory Lopez (USA) 16.00; Marcelo Nunes (BRZ) 15.17
H15: Shane Beschen (USA) 15.77; Kalani Robb (HAW) 15.60; Paulo Moura (BRZ) 11.60
H16: Daniel Wills (AUS) 17.43; Travis Logie (ZAF) 14.70; Greg Emslie (ZAF) 9.83
The Rip Curl Pro is Australia's longest running professional surfing event and holds a proud place in surfing folklore, stretching back to 1973. The Rip Curl Pro's status as one of six Victorian Government-designated Hallmark International Sporting Events each year, alongside the Melbourne Formula One and Phillip Island Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Australian Tennis Open, the Melbourne Cup and the AFL Grand Final, is an acknowledgment of its contribution to the state's rich sporting culture.
The Rip Curl Pro is proudly presented by Deakin University, associated with Surfing Victoria, the Surf Coast Shire Council, the Victorian Government Department of Tourism, Sport & The Commonwealth Games, the Association of Surfing Professionals, Foster's, and supported by sponsors Telstra, Chupa Chups, National Australia Bank, Falls Creek, Schweppes, Four'n Twenty Pies and Tracks.
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