{"id":23126,"date":"2011-05-10T17:23:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T00:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=23126"},"modified":"2011-05-11T06:29:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:29:59","slug":"billabong-rio-pro-lay-day-called","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=23126","title":{"rendered":"Billabong Rio Pro Lay Day Called"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Parkinson6831Brasil10Kirstin<\/a><\/p>\n

[Editors’ Note<\/strong>: Organizers waited until 10:12 AM local time before deciding to call OFF the Billabong Pro Rio<\/a><\/strong> on May 11, 2011. Next call May 12, 7 Am local time.]<\/p>\n

From the looks of the waves today (and the promise of a swell) the Billabong Pro Rio<\/a><\/strong> will probably start on May 11, 2011 at 4 AM PST (7 AM EST) on the first day of the waiting period. Kelly Slater<\/strong> is ready for Rio, apparently:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of good memories from competing in Rio,\u201d Slater said. \u201cThe last year that I was here was the year Peterson Rosa won, and if he didn\u2019t win I wouldn\u2019t have won the World Title that year. I was here once or twice in the 90\u2019s and I\u2019ve had good times. One year we had good waves and good barrels and I have a lot of good friends here and it\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve been back.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Welcome, welcome to Rio. Welcome, welcome to. . . follow the jump for all the details including Round 1 heat lineups.BARRA DA TAJUCA, Rio De Janeiro\/ Brazil (Tuesday, May 10, 2011) \u2013 The waiting period for the Billabong Rio Pro begins tomorrow, May 11 and with a promising swell expected to ignite the beach breaks of Brazil there is a good chance that the ASP Top 34 could kick things off straight away at the event\u2019s primary site of Barra Da Tajuca.<\/p>\n

Stop No. 3 of 11 on the men\u2019s ASP World Title Season, the Billabong Rio Pro returns to Rio De Janiero after landing at several iconic Brazilian destinations over the years.<\/p>\n

Joel Parkinson (AUS), 30, current No. 2 on the men\u2019s ASP World Title Race, enters the Billabong Rio Pro with a newfound confidence after taking an amazing win at Bells Beach and hopes to maintain his form at Barra Da Tajuca.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my form has always been there, but I was missing confidence,\u201d Parkinson said. \u201cBeing back in the winner\u2019s circle has brought that back and I feel like I\u2019m surfing good again. Making the right decisions in heats is the key and it feels good to be back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jadson Andre (BRA), 21, earned the biggest victory of his career by defeating 10-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (USA), 39, to win the Billabong Pro in Santa Catarina last year and is hungry to post another impressive showing with the support of his nation behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy victory last year was the most memorable day of my life,\u201d Andre said. \u201cWhen I won last year it was only my third World Tour event and I won, but I\u2019m going to surf heat-by-heat and try to progress. The aim is always to win and that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying for in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly Slater current leader on the ASP World Title Race, won an elite ASP World Tour event in Rio de Janeiro back in 1997 and his return to the city sparks many fond memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of good memories from competing in Rio,\u201d Slater said. \u201cThe last year that I was here was the year Peterson Rosa won, and if he didn\u2019t win I wouldn\u2019t have won the World Title that year. I was here once or twice in the 90\u2019s and I\u2019ve had good times. One year we had good waves and good barrels and I have a lot of good friends here and it\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve been back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adriano de Souza (BRA), 24, who is heading into the Billabong Rio Pro after an equal 3rd place finish at Bells Beach, is out to use the support of his passionate fans to tackle the world\u2019s best surfers and hopes one of his fellow countrymen will keep the Billabong Pro Rio title in Brazil.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m coming off of a good result and having the support of the crowd is definitely going to help me get on a roll,\u201d De Souza said. \u201cHopefully the waves come my way and one of the five Brazilians will be the winner of this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the men\u2019s competition, the Billabong Rio Pro will see the world\u2019s best female surfers competing as well, with the Brazilian event representing stop No. 4 of 7 on the women\u2019s ASP World Title Race.<\/p>\n

The Billabong Rio Pro holds a waiting period from May 11 through 22 and is webcast LIVE via http:\/\/www.billabongpro.com<\/p>\n

For additional ASP information log on to www.aspworldtour.com or www.aspnorthamerica.org<\/p>\n

BILLABONG RIO PRO ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
\nHeat 1: Owen Wright (AUS), Heitor Alves (BRA), Bobby Martinez (USA)
\nHeat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS), Adam Melling (AUS), Kai Otton (AUS)
\nHeat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS), Alejo Muniz (BRA), TBA
\nHeat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS), Dusty Payne (HAW), TBA
\nHeat 5: Jordy Smith (ZAF), Patrick Gudauskas (USA), TBA
\nHeat 6: Kelly Slater (USA), Julian Wilson (AUS), TBA
\nHeat 7: Bede Durbidge (AUS), Jadson Andre (BRA), Gabe Kling (USA)
\nHeat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA), C.J. Hobgood (USA), Josh Kerr (AUS)
\nHeat 9: Damien Hobgood (USA), Tiago Pires (PRT), Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
\nHeat 10: Michel Bourez (PYF), Chris Davidson (AUS), Cory Lopez (USA)
\nHeat 11: Adriano de Souza (BRA), Kieren Perrow (AUS), Daniel Ross (AUS)
\nHeat 12: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Matt Wilkinson (AUS), Taylor Knox (USA)<\/p>\n

BILLABONG WOMEN’S RIO PRO ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
\nHeat 1: Tyler Wright (AUS), Courtney Conlogue (BRA), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
\nHeat 2: Silvana Lima (BRA), Paige Hareb (NZL), Felicity Palmateer (AUS)
\nHeat 3: Carissa Moore (HAW), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Maya Gabeira (BRA)
\nHeat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Laura Enever (AUS), Andrea Lopes (BRA)
\nHeat 5: Stepahnie Gilmore (AUS), Pauline Ado (FRA), Suelen Naraisa (BRA)
\nHeat 6: Coco Ho (HAW), Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Alana Blanchard (HAW)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editors’ Note: Organizers waited until 10:12 AM local time before deciding to call OFF the Billabong Pro Rio on May 11, 2011. Next call May 12, 7 Am local time.] From the looks of the waves today (and the promise of a swell) the Billabong Pro Rio will probably start on May 11, 2011 at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23139,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126\/revisions\/23139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}