| Jordy Smith is back on track at the 2010 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast |
| Monday, 01 March 2010 11:22 |
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The opening eight heats of the elimination, man-on-man Round 2 at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast presented by Land Rover were completed this afternoon in pulsing two-to-three foot (1 metre) barrelling righthanders at Snapper Rocks. The opening event of the 2010 ASP World Tour, the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast hit the water following the completion of Round 1 of the women’s Roxy Pro Gold Coast, and the world’s best surfers shined in the rippable conditions with the top seeds rebounding throughout their respective Round 2 battles. Jordy Smith (ZAF), 22, current ASP World No. 11, recovered from a lackluster Round 1 performance with the highest heat total of today, a 17.86 out of a possible 20, dominating the running righthanders with a blitzkrieg of forehand barrels and gaffs.
“You always want to try to impress the crowd and whoever’s watching but you just got to slow it down sometimes and just try to get the scores,” Smith said. “I just surf like 70% or 80% and then, in the later rounds, I just give everything.” Contributing to Smith’s victory today was a near-perfect 9.93 out of a possible 10 (the highest scoring wave of the day), for a super deep forehand barrel that brought the tens of thousands in attendance to their feet in raucous approval. “I kind of got lucky on that one wave,” Smith said. “It was such a good wave. I’m sure anyone could have had a good score. I’m just lucky I got it. It was kind of slow in the beginning and then walled up all the way down the bank.” Dane Reynolds (USA), 24, current ASP World No. 10, was another standout in this afternoon’s glassy conditions, posting an impressive 17.33 out of a possible 20, eliminating 2010 ASP Dream Tour rookie Blake Thornton (AUS), 29. “I was happy they ran it today,” Reynolds said. “The other morning, I kind of got sacrificed for the tide because they have to start at a certain point to finish the round, and the first heat they’re going to start in bad surf. But today it’s really fun out there and they made a great call.” Despite today’s emphatic win, the young Californian remains guarded when discussing the remainder of the event, citing equipment uncertainty as amongst his chief concerns. “I was actually really nervous before surfing today because I’ve been riding a ton of boards and surfing really terrible,” Reynolds said. “I’ve just been really confused with the surf here because I’m coming from surfing California the last two months where it’s high interval swells and there’s a lot of energy to it. The energy is hitting mushy pointbreaks and then you come here and it’s 8-second intervals so there’s nothing behind and it’s in a shallow sandbar so they’re round and soft at the same time so you really need a different sort of boards to work here.” Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30am to assess conditions for a possible 8am start. For the first time in the events’ storied nine-year history, the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast events are being televised LIVE on FUEL TV in Australia, beaming the world’s best surfing right into your living room.
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.84 def. Garrett Parkes (AUS) 11.83
Heat 9: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 1: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Bruna Schmitz (BRA), Nikita Robb (ZAF)
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