{"id":23236,"date":"2011-05-17T10:53:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T17:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=23236"},"modified":"2011-05-18T10:02:02","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T17:02:02","slug":"slater-scores-on-billabong-pro-rio-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=23236","title":{"rendered":"Slater Scores On Billabong Pro Rio Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Slater0642Rio11Kirstin<\/a><\/p>\n

After days of waiting, the 2011 Billabong Pro Rio<\/a><\/strong> finally shuffled through Round 1 in what the ASP described as “consistently changing conditions” (whatever that means). Kelly Slater’s fans can rejoice in the comfort that he; one, is still in it, and two, snapped in the highest score of the day with a 9.0 (pictured above) to win his heat against Julian Wilson<\/strong> and Brazilian Peterson Crisanto<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 9 felt good,\u201d Slater said. \u201cI went down to grab my jersey and there was some confusion. By the time I got out, the heat had already started and Julian got that first one. It wasn\u2019t a good start. I knew there were going to be some good ones and I just had to be patient. That one good wave actually let me bottom turn and hit the lip, most of the waves were soft and had a lot of horizontals.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The only other real news from the day was that Patrick Gudauskas<\/strong> edged Jordy Smith<\/strong> by .06 in Heat 5, and Taylor Knox<\/strong> stuffed Joel Parkinson<\/strong> 15.03 to 8.34 in Heat 12 to sending two of the world’s best surfers into the second round. Maybe the practice will help keep them lose.<\/p>\n

It would also appear that the contest will continue tomorrow May 18, 2011. We’ve just got to figure out a way to get up in time to watch it. Sometimes 4 AM is just too early. Follow the jump for the full results.World\u2019s Best Surfers Ignite Aproador to Complete Round 1 of Billabong Rio Pro<\/p>\n

APROADOR, Rio de Janeiro\/Brazil (Tuesday, May 17, 2011) \u2013 After a week of lay-days, the world\u2019s best surfers tore into consistently changing conditions at the lefthand pointbreak of Aproador to complete Round 1 of the Billabong Rio Pro.<\/p>\n

Stop No. 3 of 11 on the ASP World Title Series, the opening day of men\u2019s competition saw ASP Dream Tour veterans earn the day\u2019s top scores while defending event winner Jadson Andre (BRA), 21, made an impressive entrance in the Billabong Rio Pro\u2019s opening round.<\/p>\n

Kelly Slater (USA), 39, reigning 10-time ASP World Champion, got off to a strong start to open his Billabong Rio Pro campaign. Slater unleashed two furious tail-drifting backhand turns to notch the day\u2019s highest single-wave score of a 9.00 (out of 10) midway through his bout to overtake ASP World Tour rookie Julian Wilson (AUS), 22, and event wildcard Peterson Crisanto (BRA), 18, after nearly missing the start of his heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 9 felt good,\u201d Slater said. \u201cI went down to grab my jersey and there was some confusion. By the time I got out, the heat had already started and Julian got that first one. It wasn\u2019t a good start. I knew there were going to be some good ones and I just had to be patient. That one good wave actually let me bottom turn and hit the lip, most of the waves were soft and had a lot of horizontals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slater, who finished runner-up at the Billabong Pro last year, was also quick to admit that several goofy-footers will be tough to beat at the lefthander of Aproador and noted that the natural-footers will need to be especially selective in their wave choice at the Billabong Rio Pro.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little left like this is going to play well for goofy footers,\u201d Slater said. \u201cOwen (Wright) and Jadson (Andre) are probably frothing on it and licking their chops ready to go. We (natural footers) have been on our frontside at Snapper and Bells and now it\u2019s their turn. We\u2019ve just got to try and be smart. Mick (Fanning) looked good and there are waves out there to do it, you\u2019ve just got to be smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taj Burrow (AUS), 32, opened his Billabong Rio Pro campaign with a sharp backhand attack by belting two Arpoador lefthanders to the tune of a 16.83 (out of 20) on his first two waves to earn the highest heat-total of the day. The Australian veteran notched his Round 1 heat win over dangerous Brazilian rookie Alejo Muniz (BRA), 21, and event wildcard Ricardo Santos (BRA), 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of scary for a second there, right when they decided to start the competition the wind started howling, but then it cleaned up heaps,\u201d Burrow said. \u201cI got two fun ones at the start so I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jadson Andre, defending event winner, reveled in Aproador\u2019s lefthanders with a combination of aggressive carves and snaps to take a convincing Round 1 heat victory with the support of the Brazilian crowd behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy to be here competing in Brazil and I love Aproador, I feel like a local,\u201d Andre said. \u201cI\u2019ve competed here several times before and have friends here. I know everyone says I should feel pressure as defending champion, but I\u2019m not worried about it. I\u2019m just thinking about the next heat. That\u2019s what I did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mick Fanning (AUS), 29, two-time ASP World Champion, slowly built momentum in his opening Billabong Rio Pro heat, eventually igniting two lefthanders by combining a series of seamless backhand turns to notch a 15.07 heat total and advance directly through to Round 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tricky trying to find the right one out there, but I watched the heat before and noticed that guys that were doing turns back-to-back were getting scores, so I tried to concentrate on that,\u201d Fanning said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t the biggest waves, but they just allowed three turns straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian talent also expressed the importance of advancing directly through to Round 3 with Brazil\u2019s ever-changing conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really good to skip as many rounds as possible, especially here in Brazil where it can be really unpredictable,\u201d Fanning said. \u201cI\u2019m stoked to get through Round 1 and I\u2019ll go back and assess what\u2019s going on and hopefully keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billabong Rio Pro event organizers will reconvene at Aproador at 7am local time tomorrow morning for a possible 8am start.<\/p>\n

To watch the Billabong Rio Pro LIVE log on to http:\/\/www.billabongpro.com<\/p>\n

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

Billabong Rio Pro Round 1 Results:
\nHeat 1: Owen Wright (AUS) 13.60, Heitor Alves (BRA) 7.67, Bobby Martinez (USA) 7.47
\nHeat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.84, Adam Melling (AUS) 11.16, Kai Otton (AUS) 7.90
\nHeat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.33, Ricardo Santos (BRA) 11.17, Alejo Muniz (BRA) 10.60
\nHeat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) 15.07, Simao Romao (BRA) 12.36, Dusty Payne (HAW) 11.66
\nHeat 5: Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 8.13, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 8.07, Igor Morais (BRA) 6.34
\nHeat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.17, Julian Wilson (AUS) 14.37, Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 3.84
\nHeat 7: Jadson Andre (BRA) 14.33, Gabe Kling (USA) 10.66, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 7.90
\nHeat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.56, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 10.80, Josh Kerr (AUS) 7.43
\nHeat 9: Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.00, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 11.10, Tiago Pires (PRT) 10.93
\nHeat 10: Cory Lopez (USA) 11.54, Chris Davidson (AUS) 10.00, Michel Bourez (PYF) 8.57
\nHeat 11: Daniel Ross (AUS) 14.90, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.67, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 8.96
\nHeat 12: Taylor Knox (USA) 15.03, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 14.70, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 8.34<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After days of waiting, the 2011 Billabong Pro Rio finally shuffled through Round 1 in what the ASP described as “consistently changing conditions” (whatever that means). Kelly Slater’s fans can rejoice in the comfort that he; one, is still in it, and two, snapped in the highest score of the day with a 9.0 (pictured […]<\/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\/23236"}],"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=23236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23251,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23236\/revisions\/23251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}