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ROOKIES,
WILDCARDS PUSH THROUGH AT BELLS
Numerous Upsets Throughout Round Two of the Rip Curl Pro
By: ASP World Tour
April 13, 2006
With
the famous Bells Beach Bowl firing in consistent three to four foot
swells
throughout the day, spectators were treated to
some spectacular surfing as the
rookies and wildcards dominated round two of the Rip Curl Pro. The most notable performances of the day
came from
Hawaiian powerhouse, wildcard Kekoa Bacalso and Australian competition
machine
Ben Dunn, who defeated seasoned tourers Nathan Hedge (AUS) and Jake
Paterson
(AUS) respectively.
<>Bacalso, who
earlier
this
year took out the ASP World Junior Championship, was a late entry into
the
event being placed in the draw after Brazilian Raoni Monteiro withdrew
through
injury.
He grabbed hold of the opportunity to mix it with the best with both
hands.
“I
got the call the day
before the event from my team manager Matt Griggs, telling me I was
taking
Raoni’s spot,” said Bacalso. “So I told myself it was game on, don’t do
anything stupid and just stay focused.”
Throughout the heat Bacalso looked confident and like all wildcards
with
nothing to lose he threw caution to the wind on numerous occasions.
He will now take on seven-time Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour champion
Kelly
Slater (USA) in round three and despite his inexperience at the top
level he
was eager to do more damage.
"I have nothing to lose,” said Bacalso. “I’m not on the Foster’s ASP
Men’s
World Tour as a full time campaigner, I’m only here to cause upsets so
hopefully I can shatter some dreams… And I’ve shattered one already."
Dunn, who is 2005 ASP Australasian Pro Junior champion, meanwhile
surfed an
incredibly mature heat to score his upset win over long time Foster’s
ASP Men’s
World Tourer Paterson.
Most youngsters have a tendency to panic and scramble for any wave that
comes
when placed against senior tourers, but Dunn waited patiently for the
best
waves of the heat and essentially put his board into some amazing
positions as
the waves reeled all the way through to the beach.
Dunn, who is actually competing in his fifth top tour event as a
wildcard will
now face event number two seed and three-time world champion Andy Irons
(HAW)
and like Bacalso was looking forward to the experience.
"I’m obviously extremely happy to get through,” said Dunn. “I get to
surf
round three. Every heat you surf at this level means more and more
experience.
"I'm
really looking forward to going into a man-on-man heat with Andy Irons."
~ Wildcard Surfer Ben Dunn
<>Maintaining
the solid form
that saw him land in third place in his first-ever top tour event held
in March
on Australia’s
Gold Coast, Bobby Martinez (USA) easily disposed of Brazilian Yuri
Sodre in
heat eight of the round.
Martinez,
surfing for the first time at Bells Beach,
consistently executed some extreme backside vertical turns and had the
mass of
onlookers on their feet cheering for more.
“It was hard. I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Martinez. “I
just knew that there were good
waves and I took off on many that I thought would be okay and they
weren’t.
It’s not an easy wave to read. I just got lucky finding a set that
opened up
for me a little bit and let me do a couple turns.”
Story courtesy of Surfline.com
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