QUIKSILVER PRO JAPAN ROUND ONE HITS THE ROAD

News provided by ASP World Tour on 31 August 2005

Round one of the Quiksilver Pro Japan will be hitting the water at 9am local time in clean one to 1.2metre (three to four foot) conditions at Shidashita, located approximately a half hour’s drive north of the event base at Hebara.

With the bank at Hebara drawing in a minimal amount of swell, organisers have “upped camp” to take advantage of the righthanders on offer which some of the Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour competitors have stated as being “the most fun waves they’ve had in Japan”.

Round one of the event will consist of 16 three-man heats. First place getters have a walk through to round three while second and third place will move into round two. From round two onwards the event is sudden death and the field of 48 will be whittled to two finalists. The event can be run completely in four full days.

Interestingly, in late breaking news, Kirk Flintoff has elected to withdraw from the Quiksilver Pro Japan event due to him competing in a high profile second tier ASP World Qualifying Series event in Portugal. With the events overlapping Kirk was always going to struggle to make it to Japan in time.

His replacement will be American prodigy Dane Reynolds who will slot into heat 7 against Trent Munro (AUS) and Darren O’Rafferty (AUS).

For the full heat draw go to www.aspworldtour.com

Quiksilver will be doing live webcasts of the next three ASP WCT events on www.quiksilver.com and www.aspworldtour.com

* Quiksilver Pro Japan. 31 August - 7 September
* Boost Mobile Pro presented by Quiksilver. 13-18 September
* Quiksilver Pro France. 23 September - 2 October