Today was a long but quite exciting day for the Hang Loose Pro at Santa Catarina, Brazil. All morning, all event actually, spectators and competitors alike have been wondering whether or not Mick Fanning will claim his maiden ASP World Championship Tour title here in Brazil. In order to keep their hopes alive #2 and #3 rated surfers, Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow respectively, needed to win their heats in round three. Both succeeded and advanced along with Mick into Round 4 which will begin first thing tomorrow morning.
Fortunately for everyone involved the strong wind that plagued the first half of round 2 yesterday abated overnight leaving larger surf with quite a bit of what we call “morning sickness”. The first sets of the morning were very wobbly due to the residue from the strong wind overnight. Some surfers struggled to find high scores while others tuned into the conditions and were rewarded by the judges. All day, even as the surf cleaned up slightly, we saw large differences in scores between surfers in first and second with nearly every heat having the surfer in second place needing a combination (more than a perfect ten) to take the lead. There were some dramatic comeback attempts, most notably by Fred Pattachia and Adriano De Souza, both surfers earning a score in the excellent range in the final minutes of the heat, but both were unable to make it back into the lineup in time to earn a second. In other cases, the losing surfer finished the heat with nothing more than three point rides to their name, and sometimes even less than that.
The highlight of the day was clearly the perfect 10 point ride scored by Joel Parkinson. Parko surfed through the bumpy riptide-riddled rights with incredible finesse earning three high scoring waves in quick succession before dropping into a larger left. The wave stood up and he responded with an impressive combination of smooth and deep bottom turns transitioning to super critical spray-chucking top-turns that earned him a perfect score from the judges.
Tomorrow we will finish the event and it is very possible that we will see a World Champion crowned. The forecast is calling for continued swell with more favorable weather. Tune in to watch the action unfold!
