Thurs 4 Mar 2010
The old gave way to the new as Jordy Smith blasted past Kelly Slater in Round Four of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast today, the first time they have been matched up against each other.
Jordy then moved past current World No. 3 Bede Durbidge (AUS), to move into the semifinals of the first event on the 2010 ASP World Tour. Live stream commentators at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Martin Potter and Peter Mel were discussing that if you want to do well you have to surf against the best, and do well. This was Jordy's third year on the tour against a veteran with nine world titles under his belt, and he won the clash, not just well, but with a mixture of outrageous surfing and ruthless tactical acumen.
Jordy immediately opened his account with a 7.77 ride to immediately put pressure on the veteran. A 7.00 from Kelly opened his account, with Jordy's second scoring wave to 6.5 with Kelly's second highest scoring 6.17. Jordy then sat on his priority for a good chunk of time, to put, in the words of Potter, "Kelly on the ropes".
With nine minutes remaing in the heat, Jordy played the waiting game to perfection. Kelly needing a minimum of 7.28 to beat the young upstart. And it was Kelly, not Jordy this time, trying to pull the crazy hotblooded air reverse, which failed him, and then viewers of the live stream had the classic sight of a huge wraparound cutback almost on top of Kelly as the veteran frommelled in the white water, and Jordy soared to new heights in his career.
The wave was enough to give Jordy a 8.33. It was a huge statement, and put Kelly under even bigger pressure, with him needing a 9.1 to win a place in the quarter with minutes to go.
Fears of Kelly pulling off what he has so many times before were unfounded, and the old had to make way for the new as Jordy, at 22 and 6' 2", blasted his way past another milestone.
There were upsets galore as the remaining 16 surfers in Round 4 of the event strutted their stuff in the outstanding 1 – 1.5 metre waves peeling down the point at Snapper Rocks, Queensland, with Smith and fellow new-school progressive ripper Dane Reynolds (USA) leading what appears to be a changing of the guard as they charged past the established campaigners and into what will be a fiercely contested semifinal encounter.
Smith led throughout against Slater, utilising his repertoire of radical fins-free manoeuvres, seemingly effortless floaters and deep tube rides to rack up 16.10 points out of 20, leaving the former two-time event champion needing a near perfect 9.10 points out of 10 when the heat ended.
“He is the king of our sport so just being out there surfing in a heat with him, I said to my manager earlier, ‘I don’t even care if I lose,’” Smith said of his first man-on-man clash with Slater. “You don’t get many opportunities to surf against Kelly, and also I guess it’s another good birthday present for my Mom. It was her birthday yesterday, so just make it through a couple heats is pretty cool.”
Smith went on to defeat Durbidge in their quarterfinal match-up, using a similar approach of smart heat tactics and committed surfing to overcome the in form Gold Coast local who had posted the highest heat total of the event to date, 19.30, in his Round 3 victory.
Smith will be hoping that his semifinal with Reynolds, who treated the spectators to an awesome display of surfing in ousting crowd favourite and defending champion Joel Parkinson (AUS) with 19.20 points in the quarters, will be a case of third time lucky and that he can advance to his first final at the top level of competitive surfing.
In his previous two semifinals he lost to eventual event winner Taj Burrow (AUS) as a wildcard at Jeffreys Bay in 2006 and was defeated by Parkinson, who also went on to win, at Bells Beach last Easter.
The other semi will see ASP World No. 4 Burrow up against Bobby Martinez (USA) after the pair defeated Adriano de Souza (BRA) and Kai Otten (AUS), who had eliminated reigning two-time ASP World Champion Mick Fanning (AUS) in Round 4, in their respective quarterfinals.
Running in conjunction with the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, the ASP Top 17 completed the opening four heats of Round 3 of the Roxy Pro Gold Coast.
Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 22, reigning three-time ASP World Champion, and Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), 19, current ASP World No. 5, dominated the mid-day action, with the youngster announcing herself as a legitimate ASP Women’s World Title contender.
South Africa’s Rosanne Hodge (East London) was not in action today and will take on former ASP Women’s Wold Champion Chelsea Hedges (AUS) in Heat 6 of Round 3 when the event recommences.
Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30am to assess conditions for a possible 7:30am start (11.30pm today (Thursday), SA Time).
All the action from Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast pres. by Land Rover and the Roxy Pro Gold Coast will be webcast LIVE via www.quiksilverpro.com.au
For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com
QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.86 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.53 def. Chris Davidson (AUS) 10.60
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) 16.06 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.43
Heat 4: Kai Otton (AUS) 15.76 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 15.57
Heat 5: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.44 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 14.23
Heat 6: Dane Reynolds (USA) 12.63 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 10.33
Heat 7: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.97 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 9.17
Heat 8: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.10 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 13.17
QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.70 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.40
QF 2: Bobby Martinez (USA) 16.66 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 10.64
QF 3: Dane Reynolds (USA) 19.20 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.47
QF 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.10 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 13.77
QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST SEMIFINAL MATCH-UPS:
SF 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Bobby Martinez (USA)
SF 2: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
ROXY PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Coco Ho (HAW) 15.17 def. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 3.97
Heat 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 16.33 def. Bruna Schmitz (BRA) 14.84
Heat 3: Rebecca Woods (AUS) 14.60 def. Paige Hareb (NZL) 11.08
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.00 def. Tyler Wright (AUS) 14.03
ROXY PRO GOLD COAST REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 5: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
Heat 6: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) vs. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF)
Heat 7: Melanie Bartels (HAW) vs. Jessi Miley-Dyer (HAW)
Heat 8: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Carissa Moore (HAW)
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
