{"id":24372,"date":"2011-07-18T07:46:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T14:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=24372"},"modified":"2011-07-24T18:45:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T01:45:36","slug":"no-surprises-at-billabong-pro-j-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=24372","title":{"rendered":"No Surprises At Billabong Pro J-Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

When we fell asleep last night the Billabong Pro J-Bay<\/a><\/strong> was on hold for a 7:30 AM call. And they went with the first six heats of round two. While contestable waves may have been a bit of a surprise, the results were not. Everyone advances or was eliminated as expected. Ace Buchan<\/strong> had the score of the morning with a 15.80 in his Heat 6 victory over Cory Lopez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s challenging out there with the inconsistency,\u201d Buchan said. \u201cWe\u2019re always in a tough spot when faced with less-than-stellar forecasts, and I think the guys understood that we had to get out there and battle one another. It might not be equal for all heats in a round or all rounds in a contest, but at least it\u2019s equal between each guy in the heat.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yes, Kelly Slater<\/strong> missed his heat and is rolling into retirement hunting down perfect waves around the world.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the details, follow the jump.ASP Top 34 Battle it Out in Elimination Round 2 at Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay<\/p>\n

JEFFREYS BAY, South Africa (Monday, July 18, 2011) \u2013 The Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay recommenced today with the first six heats of Round 2 taking advantage of an unexpected clean pulse through the iconic pointbreak.<\/p>\n

Event No. 4 of 11 on the 2011 ASP World Title season, the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay plays a crucial role in both the hunt for the 2011 ASP World Title as well as the requalification campaigns of the world\u2019s best surfers before the mid-season rotation. Despite the at-times inconsistent conditions, the ASP Top 34 battled it out in sterling fashion.<\/p>\n

Adrian Buchan (AUS), 28, punctuated the day\u2019s affairs with the highest heat total of the Round (a 15.80 out of a possible 20), lighting up the offshore-kissed righthanders with aggressive backhand surfing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s challenging out there with the inconsistency,\u201d Buchan said. \u201cWe\u2019re always in a tough spot when faced with less-than-stellar forecasts, and I think the guys understood that we had to get out there and battle one another. It might not be equal for all heats in a round or all rounds in a contest, but at least it\u2019s equal between each guy in the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adriano de Souza (BRA), 24, current leader in the hunt for the 2011 ASP World Title, scored his first heat win since an emotional hometown victory in Brazil in May and looks to be recovering well from knee injury sustained during a training trip to the Maldives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with every surf I\u2019m building momentum,\u201d De Souza said. \u201cI\u2019m really happy to make this heat. I\u2019ve been a little low during my last few surfs, but this win really builds my confidence. I\u2019m just focusing on each heat and each event and not thinking about the title right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bede Durbidge (AUS), 28, Equal 3rd finisher at Jeffreys Bay in 2010, racked upa 15.10 out of a possible 20 in a convincing win over Shaun Joubert (ZAF), 20. Joubert, who was in as a replacement for Bobby Martinez (USA), 29, exhibited some electric surfing, even putting Durbidge on the back foot at one point, but it was the powerful Australian who would eventually grab the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI changed my strategy a little bit actually,\u201d Durbidge said. \u201cBobby (Martinez) is a really good pointbreak surfer, he\u2019s really strong and powerful. Shaun (Joubert) is a really good air surfer, but he hasn\u2019t surfed at this level a whole lot so I tried to put some scores up early and put the pressure on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a slow start to the year, Durbidge has been on a roll lately and will look to maintain the form through the course of the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really good to get through that heat,\u201d Durbidge said. \u201cI haven\u2019t had the best year so far and I was getting kind of down on myself. It was an important heat for me in terms of keeping the momentum going from Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taj Burrow (AUS), 33, current No. 4 on the ASP World Title rankings, was in blistering form this morning, taking down lethal wildcard Sean Holmes is a closely-fought Round 2 battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tricky out there today,\u201d Burrow said. \u201cIt\u2019s really clean, but a bit inconsistent. Sean (Holmes) is so dangerous out there. He knows the wave better than anyone and I wasn\u2019t taking him lightly. Stoked to get through and hopefully we are able to take advantage of some swell later in the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis Logie (ZAF), 32, who replaced Kelly Slater (USA), 39, under the new ASP ruling in today\u2019s Round 2, surfed an intelligent heat against wildcard Shaun Payne (ZAF), 26, advancing through to Round 3 and collecting valuable ASP World Rankings points along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the weirdest week of my life,\u201d Logie said. \u201cI\u2019ve been hanging around and wondering if I\u2019m getting into the event and dealing with the rumor mill. I guess it was all worth it though. That was a huge heat for me and my campaign to get back on tour full time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 7am to assess conditions for a possible 7:30am start.<\/p>\n

When competition resumes, up first will be Damien Hobgood (USA), 32, up against compatriot Taylor Knox (USA), 40, in Heat 7 of Round 2.<\/p>\n

Highlights from the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay will be available via http:\/\/www.billabongpro.com<\/p>\n

For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com<\/p>\n

BILLABONG PRO JEFFREYS BAY ROUND 2 RESULTS:
\nHeat 1: Travis Logie (ZAF) 12.33 def. Shaun Payne (ZAF) 7.30
\nHeat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.33 def. Sean Holmes (ZAF) 6.04
\nHeat 3: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.10 def. Shaun Joubert (ZAF) 11.06
\nHeat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.03 def. Gabe Kling (USA) 12.50
\nHeat 5: Owen Wright (AUS) 11.86 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 10.77
\nHeat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.80 def. Cory Lopez (USA) 6.50<\/p>\n

REMAINING BILLABONG PRO JEFFREYS BAY ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
\nHeat 7: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Taylor Knox (USA)
\nHeat 8: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
\nHeat 9: Brett Simpson (USA) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
\nHeat 10: Patrick Gudauskas (USA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
\nHeat 11: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
\nHeat 12: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) vs. Chris Davidson (AUS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we fell asleep last night the Billabong Pro J-Bay was on hold for a 7:30 AM call. And they went with the first six heats of round two. While contestable waves may have been a bit of a surprise, the results were not. Everyone advances or was eliminated as expected. Ace Buchan had the […]<\/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\/24372"}],"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=24372"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24427,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24372\/revisions\/24427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}