LOCALS SEND THE BIG GUNS PACKING IN NOVA SCHIN FESTIVAL, BRAZIL

News provided by ASP World Tour on 6 November 2005

In rising one metre (three foot) and choppy conditions it was great day for the locals in the Nova Schin Festival presented by Billabong held at Imbituba, Florianopolis Brazil.

Ousting big names including world number five Trent Munro (AUS), Hawaiian hot shot and 11th ranked Bruce Irons, former Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour number three Danny Wills (AUS) and currently 17th ranked Tom Whitaker (AUS), Brazilians Guilherme Ferreira, Heitor Alves, Flavio Costa and Odirlei Coutinho are holding their heads high and will move through to round three.

After a long wait for swell to arrive to the Florianopolis coastline, competitors in the last four heats of round one were sent out in fairly small conditions to begin with, but as the tide filled in the waves quickly rose to meet the occasion.

And although becoming bumpy due to the strong onshore wind brought in by a nasty storm front, competitors had some nice walls to play with and the locals revelled.

In a bizarre backdrop, the enthusiasm of the spectators literally couldn’t be dampened by the wind and the rain, which drove in all afternoon. Driving their cars onto the beach they honked their horns to cheer on their heroes as they knocked out their more fancied rivals.

Defeating Bruce Irons in heat four with an aggressive display, Alves who is rated number 56 on the second tier tour, the ASP World Qualifying Series was incredibly happy.

Mobbed by local media as well as the crowd Alves was beaming. “I’m very, very happy to beat someone like Bruce Irons,” he said. “I was very lucky out there and managed to pick up some good waves. It is a very big thing for me and to do this in front of my home crowd is very special.”

The lone Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tourers to fend off local challengers were Damien Hobgood (USA) and Mick Fanning (AUS).

Hobgood who is suffering from chronic food poisoning managed to muster just enough strength to come home with the goods in heat three where he defeated Pablo Paulino (BRA). Prior to the heat he was sleeping in a car in the car park in between running to vomit.

Interestingly, Hobgood also freely admitted that he suffered an “accident” in his pants prior to the heat. “Yeah, I was standing there waiting for my heat and woops!” he said.

Fanning meanwhile was very focused and spent most of his leadup to the heat zoning in. He looked strong and went about his round two heat in a tradesman like manner despite there being a long lull in the waves to start with.

“It was a really slow start and we sat there for almost 12 minutes waiting for a wave,” said Fanning. “I didn’t get any really big scores but they did the job and were enough to get through.”

He was very wary of the local wildcards and acknowledged that on their home turf they can’t be underestimated. He also indicated that now the title race is over for him he’ll be trying new things and preparing for next year.

“You just never know with the wildcards,” said Fanning. “They have nothing to lose and the whole crowd really gets behind them. Every time they get a wave the crowd roars. But I’m pretty pumped here and will be trying new ways of attacking heats so I can hopefully ‘light it up a bit more'.”

Taking onlookers back in time and displaying the talent that took him to great heights in his hey day in the mid-’80s, former world champion Tom Curren put his foot down to defeat Wills, and Luke Stedman (AUS) in round one heat 13.

Since scoring numerous wildcard entries to Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour events this year, this is his first heat victory and he will now move directly through to round three.

“It was great to get in the water finally,” said Curren. “I got a good wave early and luckily it had a really good wall. I managed to link together some long turns and get the score. I’ve had a lot of heats this year as a wildcard and this is the first time I’ve won so I’m stoked. It’s great to come here as the locals get so behind the sport. I believe we’ll see a lot more quality surfers come out of Brazil very soon.”


Results:

Round One
Heat 13: 1. Tom Curren (USA) 14.34; 2. Danny Wills (AUS) 13.60; 3. Luke Stedman (AUS) 6.70
Heat 14: 1. Fred Patacchia (HAW) 16.33; 2. Bernado Pigmeu (BRA) 11.60; Greg Emslie (ZAF) 10.50
Heat 15: 1. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 15.16; 2 Guilherme Herdy (BRA) 13.60; 3. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 12.70
Heat 16: 1. Kirk Flintoff (AUS) 16.70; 2. Renan Rocha (BRA) 14.47; 3. Peterson Rosa (BRA) 9.63

Round Two
Heat 1: Mick Fanning (AUS) 14.00 def Guga Aruda (BRA) 10.46
Heat 2: Guilherme Ferreira (BRA) 14.17 def Trent Munro (AUS) 13.33
Heat 3: Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.43 def Pablo Paulino (BRA) 9.83
Heat 4: Heitor Alves (BRA) 16.66 def Bruce Irons (HAW) 11.43
Heat 5: Flavio Costa (BRA) 17.27 def Wills 9.30
Heat 6: Ordirlei Coutinho (BRA) 16.17 def Tom Whitaker (AUS) 14.06

Organisers of the Nova Schin Festival presented by Billabong will reconvene tomorrow at 6am local time to assess conditions.

For all the results and upcoming heat draw stay tuned to www.aspworldtour.com or www.billabongpro.com

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