Life simply doesn’t get any better for the ASP World Qualifying Series with the Maldives producing a memorable day of great waves at Pasta Point. The surfers responded to the waves by throwing caution to the wind with big moves a plenty to entertain the spectators relaxing on deck chairs, sipping cocktails and simply enjoying the sport of surfing in this incredible environment.
Hawaiian Dustin Barca was the days standout. The confident Kauai surfer showed no signs of nerves as he lined up in the days heavyweight clash against Dane Reynolds (USA) and Hank Gaskell (Haw).
While Reynolds has been this years outstanding performer an the ASP Qualifying circuit with his new wave aerial attack it was Barca who took to the skies with a series of outstanding aerial moves combined with his committed powerful backhand attack to take the heat with the highest event wave score (9.0 out of 10) and highest wave tally of 17.86.
Fellow Hawaiian Hank Gaskell was also busy pulling big aerials in this heat and finished second to progress with Reynolds the big shock elimination. Reynolds was far from disgraced today, he also pulled some great aerial moves and scored well but didn't quite find the quality waves like Barca and Gaskell.
A focused Barca had little to say after the heat other than, “I don’t think about my competitors at all I simply go out to surf my best. No game plan before the heat, just surf the best waves the best I can.”
Australia’s Matt Wilkinson was another young emerging surfer eliminated today going down to Frederick Robin (France) and Antonio Borteletto (South Africa). Wilkinson was advancing for most of the heat and also scored well with some strong aerial moves couldn’t match the consistency of his competitors.
Adam Robertson signaled the strong Australian presence at this event with a convincing heat win as the waves peaked around mid day. Robertson defeated highly decorated veteran Fabio Gouveia (Bra) to advance to round three.
“ This is an amazing event, we score great waves every year here and it’s a lot of fun to surf – you need to pinch yourself that it’s not a holiday and stay focused on the task of winning heats - there’s a long way to go to get an acceptable result here for me.”
Other great performances today included Hodie Collazo from Spain who easily won his heat thanks to a decisive excellent 8.2 ride to defeat Parish Byrne from Australia. Fellow Spanish surfer Aritz Aranburu also posted an impressive win while Pablo Gutierrez completed a great day for Spain by progressing through his heat by stealing 2nd place on his final ride in the heat.
Conditions look likely to remain excellent for the entire event and round three top seeds will enter the water tomorrow including the super exciting talents of Jordy Smith (Zaf), Adriano De Souza (Bra) and Shaun Cansdell (Aus).
Source: Global Surfer News
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