Kanoa Igarashi (USA) fins free at Burleigh. Pic ASP/Will H-S
Burleigh Heads/Australia: Monday February 4 2013: Round one of the ASP 4-Star rated Breaka Burleigh Pro Men’s was completed at Burleigh Heads today in clean but dropping 1m (2 to 3 feet) surf.
The early rounds at this event do not include the top seeded surfers like Mick Fanning, Matt Wilkinson and Bede Durbidge, those surfers are seeded into the event around Thursday later this week.
The surfers in these early rounds are a mixture of new young talents trying to make it onto the ASP World Star Series Tour and also surfers who have a history on these tours and might be making a comeback or are simply competing while the tour is in their local area.
It was both categories who dominated the waves at Burleigh today.
Veteran ASP World Championship Tour surfer Darren O’Rafferty made a comeback to ASP professional surfing and showed he still has plenty of what it takes to win heats at this level. O’Rafferty (31 years-of-age) easily won his round two heat defeating fellow young Australian Kai Hing who at 15 is the youngest surfer in the event and managed to also progress with some good scores in second place behind O’Rafferty.
O’Rafferty amassed the highest heat score of the round totalling 16.00 out of a possible 20 which included an excellent 8.33 ride.
” I’ll do a few of the events in Australia and see how I go – I’d love to return to the highest level of competing but it’s a tough game and I’ll see how I go through this Australian leg – I’m enjoying life on the NSW mid-north-coast as a beach life guard but I still enjoy the thoughts of travelling the world tour surfing and a lot of my friends are still on that tour” said O’Rafferty.
Kai Hing (Australia/Sunshine Coast/Wurtulla) is surfing the Breaka purely to gain experience.
“There’s no pressure at all on me here, I’m in it to see if I can make a few heats and lock down a few decent scores – I got a 7.83 on my final wave in that heat and that felt great – I’ll take it heat by heat and enjoy the event.”
Local talented Gold Coast surfer Jackson Coffey also impressed to advance today. The 17-year-old recently was a finalist in the Australian Junior Titles and he’s now looking to the ASP events as his next challenge. With an excellent 8 point ride mid-heat, Coffey demonstrated he can certainly handle himself at this level and he’s ready for his round two heat.
“This is my first crack at an ASP Open event so it’s new to me but I feel I can learn fast – the more heats I can make, the more I’ll take it all in and get better ” said Coffey.
International surfers were also prominent today. Kanoa Igarashi (USA) is also just 15 years of age but he has big wraps on his abilities out of the USA and he advanced in second place behind Jay Davies (AUS).
” This is just my second event at ASP open level but I am really enjoying the challenge – I’m learning every heat I surf and I want to surf as many heats as I can against the best surfers – I’ll do all the Australian Star events and hopefully build my seeding points for next year – it’s like the start of my ASP career and right now it feels good to be making heats” said Igarashi.
Late in the day the Breaka Burleigh Pro Women’s surfed their entire round three heats with Sally Fitzgibbons surviving a very close heat where she placed second and advanced behind South Africa’s Sarah Baum with Coco Ho from Hawaii being a surprise elimination in this heat. Other seeds to impress were Tyler Wright, Courtney Conlogue (USA), Laura Enever (Aus) and Malia Manuel (Haw).
Tomorrow morning organizers will decide who surfs first – Women’s round 4 or Men’s round 2 with start time around 8:00am
Results Breaka Burleigh Pro Men’s 4-Star
Round of 160 Heat 1: Quinn Bruce (Aus) 10.93, Jake Scott (Aus) 9.57, Gabriel Farias (Bra) 7.40, Kaito Takamatsu (Jpn) 5.97 Heat 2: Harrison Mann (Aus) 9.83, Luke Hynd (Aus) 8.10, Dave Reardon-Smith (Aus) 5.60, Samba Mann (Aus) 3.67 Heat 3: Yuta Isikawa (Jpn)10.00, Josh Lewan (Aus) 9.67, Riley Liang (Aus) 7.94, Jared Thorne (USA) 6.70 Heat 4: Luan Cavarlho (Bra) 11.83, Jack Duggan (Aus) 9.93, Adam Bennetts (Aus) 4.23, Matt Williams (Aus) 3.07 Heat 5: Paul Cesar (Fra) 13.33, Jackson Coffey (Aus) 11.90, Clint Kimmins (Aus) 8.07, Nik Hoskin (Aus) 4.10 Heat 6: Chris Bennetts (Aus) 12.66, Nic Jones (Aus) 10.64, Joshua Sherwell (Aus) 6.13, Maui Lacaze (PYF) 5.33 Heat 7: Roland Lefeuvre (Fra) 8.50, Dane Hamilton (Aus) 7.90, Augusto Boni (Aus) 6.33, Jake Bracken (Aus) 3.77 Heat 8: Darren O’Rafferty (Aus) 16.00, Kai Hing (Aus) 13.50, Hamish Renwick (Aus) 4.60, Asher Wales (Aus) 4.03 Heat 9: Joao Abreu (Bra) 10.00, Ed Hatcher (Aus) 6.73, Jonas Bertolucci (Bra) 6.13, Eli Steele (Aus) 4.10 Heat 10: Rafael Teixira (Bra) 14.30, Tom Hatcher (Aus) 12.00, Dane Atcheson (Aus) 10.36, Nathan Specht (Aus)5.44 Heat 11: Billy Kean (Aus) 12.33, Jared McHale (Aus) 10.26, Logan Specht (Aus) 6.40, Ashley Keillah (Aus) 6.00 Heat 12: Jeames Young (Aus) 13.60, Kaito Ohashi (Jpn) 13.24, Jake Colreavy (Aus) 8.60, Jake Cumberland (Aus) 7 Heat 13: Shane Campbell (Aus) 9.54, Luca Elder (Aus) 7.73, Maximilian Tobin (Aus) 5.87, Dru Adler (Aus) 5.4 Heat 14: Cory Ziems (Aus) 14.34, Tane Wallis (Nzl) 10.16, Sam Morgan (Aus) 9.16, Kenta Ishikawa (Jpn) 7 Heat 15: Jay Davies (Aus) 11.94, Kanoa Igarashi (USA) 10.03, Alex Dive (Nzl) 7.10, Will Morrison (Aus) 6.6 Heat 16: Chris Enever (Aus) 12.07, Arihoe Tefaafana (Pyf) 9.77, Nick Callister (Aus) 8.43, Scott Bush (USA) 3.26
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