{"id":30425,"date":"2012-05-03T17:08:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T00:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=30425"},"modified":"2012-05-04T10:27:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T17:27:09","slug":"medina-flies-at-nike-lowers-pro-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=30425","title":{"rendered":"Medina Flies At Nike Lowers Pro Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Medina-0961\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yep. Gabe Medina<\/strong> got up in the air and do those reverses again. Got ’em on lock. Mark Occhilupo<\/strong> won his round of 48 heat and helped send Michel Bourez<\/strong> packing, but he came in second in his no losers round of 24 heat, so he’s still in it (and at his age). For more details on day three of the 2012 Nike Lowers Pro<\/a><\/strong>, follow the jump.LOWER TRESTLES, San Clemente, California (Thursday, May 3, 2012) \u2013 The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Prime Nike Lowers Pro returned to the fabled California point break of Lower Trestles for the third consecutive day and saw young Brazilian talent Gabriel Medina (BRA), 18, lead his fellow ASP World Championship Tour competitors in posting the day\u2019s top scores.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Medina unveiled his progressive wizardry on the lefthand ramps of Lowers today, launching the highest scores of Nike Lowers Pro competition. The high-flying Brazilian took top honors, winning his Round of 48 heat and went on to take the day\u2019s highest single-wave score of 9.87 for a huge air-reverse while surfing a near-perfect heat of 19.53 out of 20 in his Round of 24 bout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was fun and both the lefts and rights are pretty good,\u201d Medina said. \u201cI had a good heat and I think it\u2019s because I woke up really early, at five in the morning, and got down here in the dark. I think it helped me get ready for my heat. The non-elimination round is great because it\u2019s no pressure too because everyone can show how they surf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heitor Alves (BRA), 30, who is consistently a standout at Trestles, was another Brazilian goofy-footer to put on a dominant performance at the Nike Lowers Pro. The passionate Brazilian earned one of the day\u2019s highest single-wave scores of 9.50 out of 10 with tenacious forehand gouges on a steep lefthand wall at Lowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great time again, I really like this wave and I just tried my best out there and won my heat.\u201d Alves said. \u201cI surfed before my heat and knew the sets were slow and I wanted to wait for the best ones and I got lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alves will surf again in the elimination Round of 24.<\/p>\n

Fred Patacchia (Oahu, HI), 30, was one of several goofy-footers to dominate the rights of Lowers on his backhand today. The powerful Hawaiian netted a 17.17 out of 20 heat total with committed backhand gaffs on two waves to advance through to the Round of 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with Lowers, you\u2019ve got to watch it a lot,\u201d Patacchia said. \u201cIt\u2019s constantly changing and I try and get down here a few heats earlier and know what I want to do and have a game-plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patacchia, a veteran campaigner on the ASP World Championship Tour, is now out to capitalize on his experience with man-on-man competition as the Nike Lowers Pro enters the latter rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the priority situation, it feels a lot more like a World Tour event and you can treat it like that,\u201d Patacchia said. \u201cThe inexperience of some of the guys coming up will really show and guys like the Hobgoods will really take advantage of that. It\u2019s a good experience for them and sometimes they surprise us. With only two guys out at Lowers, you really can\u2019t ask for anything more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patacchia, who won the Nike Lowers Pro in its first year as an ASP PRIME rated event, has his sights set on a second prestigious title as well as the coveted solid-gold railroad spike trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe year I won, the spike wasn\u2019t pure gold, and I\u2019m hoping to snag that thing,\u201d Patacchia said. \u201cI\u2019m feeling good and my boards are working really well. Everyone says you have to take it heat-by-heat and it\u2019s true, but my eye is on that prize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tanner Gudauskas (San Clemente, CA), 23, who finished runner-up at last year\u2019s Nike Lowers Pro, continued to ignite his home break and took an impressive win over veteran ASP World Championship Tour surfer Taylor Knox (Carlsbad, CA), 40, and former Nike Lowers Pro winner Gabe Kling (St. Augustine, FL), 31, in the no-losers Round of 24 with a solid 17.87 heat total.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun because it was a gentleman\u2019s style heat,\u201d Gudauskas said. \u201cWe were talking out there and it was a really special heat. I was stoked because I guessed if I did well here that I\u2019d go do Brazil, so we\u2019ll see how it goes, hopefully I can keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Occhilupo (AUS), 45, continued his comeback, and the surfing icon emerged victorious once again today, eliminating top seed Michel Bourez (PYF), 26, to advance to the Round of 24. Occhilupo has admittedly struggled to earn his desired results at Lower Trestles over the course of his career, but is finding success at this year\u2019s Nike Lowers Pro.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrestles hasn\u2019t really been kind to me over the years,\u201d Occhilupo said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever made the Quarterfinals, so to make these heats has been great. I love Trestles, even though it\u2019s a hard wave to surf for me, but I\u2019m stoked. It\u2019s great surfing with the young guys and the kids are surfing amazing. I\u2019m just working my way through the draw and taking it one heat at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nike Lowers Pro holds a waiting period from May 1 through 5, 2012 and will be webcast LIVE at www.nikelowerspro.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yep. Gabe Medina got up in the air and do those reverses again. Got ’em on lock. Mark Occhilupo won his round of 48 heat and helped send Michel Bourez packing, but he came in second in his no losers round of 24 heat, so he’s still in it (and at his age). For more […]<\/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\/30425"}],"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=30425"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30445,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30425\/revisions\/30445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}