| Taylor Jensen conquers the 2010 Noosa Festival of Surfing |
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| Sunday, 21 March 2010 10:31 |
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Taylor Jensen (USA) successfully defended his title at the Noosa Festival of Surfing today, crushing the hopes of local favourite Josh Constable (Noosa) to walk away with his second consecutive Golden Breed Mens Pro LQS title. Riding his lucky Laguna Bay surfboard that took him to victory here in 2009, Jensen was selective about his wave choice today, securing an early heat lead off a 7.75 (out of ten) and backed it up with a 6.65 (out of ten) to edge out Constable who placed second, with Christian Wach (USA) and Jackson Close (QLd) in third and fourth places respectively. “It’s definitely not an easy thing to take back-to-back wins, I was just doing my best out there and it worked out,” Jensen said. “My first wave was a good one and it set me up nicely for the rest of the heat. I’m super happy with the win.” Despite the deteriorating conditions in the final the action proved nail-biting as a see-saw battle for second place commenced between Constable, Wach and Close, an excellent 8.25 ride from Close not enough to see the local surfer advance out of fourth place. “It was tricky out there for sure and I was feeling the pressure from some of the guys, especially when Jackson (Close) posted that eight,” Jensen said. “All the guys surfed amazingly and it was just unfortunate we didn’t have the waves we had for the ten consecutive perfect days before this.” The Back Beach Women’s 1 Star Pro saw Hawaiian surfer Crystal Dzigas (Oahu) capture her first ever professional victory over Isabele Braly (NSW), Leah Dawson (Haw) and Rosie Locke (Noosa). “I’m so happy right now, I’ve been to this event for five or six years and have only ever made a couple of heats,” Dzigas said. “I was pretty intimidated by the competition but luckily I saw that barrel and I just went for it and that’s what earned me the win.” The Golden Breed Noserider Pro saw some sensational performances from the world’s finest noseriders with Christian Wach claiming his fourth consecutive title today. The 30-minute final saw Wach and Jensen going toe-to-toe, Jensen taking an early lead for a combined 22.95 seconds on the nose before Wach slammed down his authority with an unbelievable 28.01 second nose ride on one wave to win the event. “I truly thought Taylor (Jensen) had me after his good ride so I just decided to go for it,” said Wach. “I was pushing the limit, riding the nose as long as possible until I’d almost fall off and just thinking ‘the more risk the more reward’ and it paid off.” The Classic Malibu Men’s Open saw George Cunningham (Qld) take a narrow victory over Michael Pinney (Vic) while the Zinc 91 Women’s Open final went to Sharon Jackson (Qld) over runner up Samantha Walker (NSW). The Suncorp Stand Up Paddle Pro was won by James Watson (Qld) his exceptional performance topping that of Keahi de Aboitiz (Qld) who was forced to settle for second. In the Pacific Longboarder Junior Men’s division it was Jack Lynch (NSW) who captured the title over Ed Cunningham (Qld), Roisin Carolan (NSW) winning the Australian Longboarder Junior Women’s event over Rachel Flemming.
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