Gabriel Medina Dominates Day 2 at ASP 6-Star Supersurf Internacional
FLORIANOPOLIS, Santa Catarina/Brazil (Wednesday, September 29, 2010) – Excellent conditions with 4-6 ft (1.5–2.0 m) waves were on offer today for the ASP World 6-Star SuperSurf Internacional event held at Praia do Santinho on the second day of competition in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Gabriel Medina (BRA), 16, posted the day’s highlights and is now the new record holder on the SuperSurf 2010. Medina’s impressive performance today was a prime example of the new wave surfing as he detonated a variety of critical maneuvers including massive tail-free turns and power gouges to set the day’s highest single-wave score of a 9.50 en route to the day’s highest heat total of 18.43 while taking out his Round of 96 surfers heat victory.
“I’m stoked for being able to find such good waves on the heat. The last one was incredible, I took off late in a right hander and pulled in a barrel and made it getting a 9.50 from the judges, that was cool”, said Gabriel Medina, with a characteristic shy only found in Kids of his age. He’s impressed the world of surfing since last year with his spectacular air moves, but this time he took all the SuperSurf records without even using his strongest weapon.
“The conditions are not good for aerials today, it’s too windy, but I’ll try to throw same airs on the next heats”, promised Medina, happy to be competing in Brazil. “It’s so good to compete at home. I’m traveling a lot this year; I just came from Europe where I competed every week in a different country, what is stressful”.
The last four heats of Round of 144 surfers were run today. Gavin Gillette (HAW) and Masatoshi Ohno (JPN) advanced on the first heat. Angelo Lozano (MEX) and Carlos Munoz (CRC) were the next to move through and Jean da Silva (BRA) closed de round posting the biggest combined score of 15.20 pts.
Next started the round of 96 surfers and the 2010 WT surfer Neco Padaratz advanced in second place on the opening heat won by Michel Roque (BRA).
“The waves are very different from yesterday, but are still very hard to find the good ones, so you have to select the waves very carefully, because the details can make the difference”, said Neco Padaratz. “I positioned myself to get the right-handers, however I couldn’t get many of them. I even got a quick tube ride on a right, but I hope to do better on the next round”.
Neco can now only go back to the elite by the ASP World Ranking, which will classify ten surfers to the 2011 Dream Tour. However, among the Brazilians who are outside the current group, Heitor Alves is the best placed. He has two consecutive wins in the European Leg, in Spain and Portugal, also won the first ASP World Star in Brazil early in this year, at home in Ceara, and he may even confirm his qualification in the SuperSurf Internacional.
In his first presentation at Praia do Santinho, he was overcome by Denis Tihara (BRA), but advanced in second place for the round of 48 surfers in Florianopolis. “The most important now is to advance in the competition. I concentrated in getting two good waves and it worked well. My goal here is to try to win the contest, because I think that with another win I can qualify for the 2011 ASP World Tour”.
Live Webcast
www.supersurf.com.br ESPN will broadcast the event finals live on Sunday.
Check the event live webcast at
www.aspsouthamerica.com.br
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aspworldtour/~3/RySlVvVrQ00/