Volcom Fiji Pro Round 2 Completed in Maxing Conditions at Cloudbreak
Bede Durbidge (AUS), 29, took on maxing Cloudbreak this morning to best compatriot Adam Melling (AUS), 27, in Round 2 of the Volcom Fiji Pro.
CLOUDBREAK, Tavarua/Fiji (Friday, June 8, 2012) – The Volcom Fiji Pro completed the remaining two heats of Round 2 this morning in maxing 12-to-15 foot (4 – 5 metre) waves at Cloudbreak.
Event No. 4 of 10 on the 2012 ASP World Championship Tour, the Volcom Fiji Pro took advantage of a small window of ideal winds to complete the round before calling competition off for the day.
Bede Durbidge (AUS), 29, survived a hard-fought battle with compatriot Adam Melling (AUS), 27, in the opening heat of the day. Durbidge showcased an impressive command of the conditions, netting a 15.43 out of a possible 20 en route to his Round 2 win.
“Those were the biggest most perfect waves I’ve ever surfed,” Durbidge said. “It was pretty nerve-wracking being first up. We were on and then off and then on again. You have to be prepared to go. I think everyone on tour is more than capable of handling Cloudbreak as big as it gets, we just have to pick our window with the wind. Mello (Adam Melling) was charging out there too so tough luck to him but I’m pumped to get some bombs and get through to Round 3.”
Durbidge will take on Taj Burrow (AUS), 34, in the opening heat of Round 3 when competition recommences.
Kai Otton (AUS), 32, exhibited a sterling case of forehand bravado in the final heat of the day, rebounding from a late charge from Raoni Monteiro (BRA), 30, to claim their Round 2 heat.
“It is really really big out there,” Otton said. “Really big and really perfect. Raoni (Monteiro) gets the hero award today. He pulled into a monster and got crushed for it. If that wave didn’t come in for me at the end, that would have been it for me. Thankfully it did and I survive to surf another day.”
Monteiro pulled into an incredibly large barrel towards the end of his heat, earning huge cheers from the hundreds in the channel. Unfortunately, the Brazilian paid for his heroics with a hyper-extended ligament in his knee.
Otton will face Adriano de Souza (BRA), 25, in Round 3 of the Volcom Fiji Pro.
Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30am to assess conditions for a possible 8am start.
Highlights from the Volcom Fiji Pro will be available via www.volcom.com/fijipro
For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com
VOLCOM FIJI PRO REMAINING ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 11: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.43 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 14.23
Heat 12: Kai Otton (AUS) 14.33 def. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 12.34
VOLCOM FIJI PRO ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
Heat 2: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 3: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA)
Heat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 5: Alejo Muniz (BRA) vs. Gabriel Medina (BRA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Mitch Coleborn (AUS)
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 9: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 10: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 11: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA)
Heat 12: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Comments
Category: All ASP News, ASP World Tour News
Hopefully tahiti is full on and GM has no where to hide!
and Kelly with his big boards quiver……where were him ??? hided? huahuahuahua
Please find Parsons to work with Stansfield and get the 15 year old tools out of the booth!
The gushing over every basic turn and tube is beyond horrible.
Yes the waves are perfect and yes these are the best in the world. Expectations should reflect that. The bar is much higher for the surfers and announcers! No more amateur hour!
I’ll pay money not to hear Chris Cote ever again on a webcast.
You want to know why the event was cancelled? Cloudbreak is an amazing wave, but as you saw with Raoni’s injury it is also a wave of significant consequence. Surfers competing in the event need to sustain their health until the end of the year and I feel that none of them should have to risk potentially serious injuries when there is alternative solutions like restaurants.
I hope Kelly wins.
I just loveee Fiji!
Volcoms contest director made a pretty big mistake on this one in my opinion, surely instead of cancelling the day outright after those heats they should’ve gone on hold, i understand it wasn’t great for those 2 heats but as everyone was saying on the commentary in Tavarua the wind is fickle and can change in minutes ~ if they’d hung around for a bit we would have seen one of the greatest afternoons of competition ever, and those guys would’ve still had a sick free surf in between. Now there running in windy cross shore restaurants, still sick but nothing in comparison
Just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to asp, volcom, red bull tv and all the brave surfers who made this memorable session go down. Could not sleep after watching and hurting at work today, but was well worth it. Thanks for keeping the cameras rolling it was just so epic.
Looking forward to watch round 3 !
I wanted to see some big show. All I saw was some scared top surfers on a boat while the REAL big riders kept charging. Sorry for Raoni´s injury.Hope ASP remenbers to give him an injury card for next year, because for this year Raoni wont compete anymore.
I would know the reason or reasons for cancelling the tornament with such perfects waves, why…was it too big?…it was ridable and with such bombs it would be amazing to have seen real big wave surfing in as you say, “perfect conditions” I cannot understand why the postponing and postponing every half an hour to at the end cancelling, why?