MARTINEZ CONTINUES HIS GIANT-KILLING ROMP IN QUIKSILVER PRO

News provided by ASP World Tour on 6 March 2006

The giant-killing spree of Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour rookie Bobby Martinez (USA) continued today when he crash tackled 2005 world number five, Phil MacDonald (AUS) out of the Quiksilver Pro in heat one of round three.

After a stop-start beginning to the day, which saw the event kick off at Greenmount Beach early, the abating swell meant that no waves were ridden in the first heat therefore it had to be restarted at Duranbah, two hours later, in much more suitable conditions.

The messing about obviously affected Phil MacDonald who struggled to find rhythm in the one metre (three foot) beach break conditions while Martinez rallied all his ability and fired on all cylinders.

Martinez finished with a total of 16.00 to Macdonald’s 13.33 after he blazed some flashy backhand off-the-top re-entries and he was eagerly looking forward to his next chance to impress.

“Yeah I’m excited,” said Martinez. “I think I just got lucky with finding some good waves. It was a hard heat with Phil MacDonald being such a great surfer and competitor. It just came down to whoever got the better waves and in that case I was a bit luckier. I am honestly concerned about coming up against the big names, as everyone on this tour is so good. But you just have to focus on your own situation.”

Martinez also indicated that his solid grounding on the ASP Men’s World Qualifying Series may have been a huge help in him quickly adjusting to the change in venue.

“I’m used to the World Qualifying Series where they throw you out in anything,” said Martinez. “So it was a bit weird this morning when they changed their minds. It was a long morning waiting around while the contest made up its mind. I’m glad to get it underway because with the delay the nerves were starting to kick in.”

Other upsets of the day included Raoni Monteiro’s (BRA) last minute win over Bruce Irons (HAW).

Irons, who landed a huge aerial on the flat of a wave early in the heat to score a 9.0 out of 10 looked to have the situation under control and was perhaps counting his chickens too early.

Monteiro, who was struggling to find quality waves kept chipping away and in the last minute grabbed a wave and launched an incredibly high aerial followed by an even more amazing frontside tail slide re-entry.

“I just worked so hard out there to get some good waves at the end,” said Monteiro. “At the beginning I did nothing and couldn’t find a good wave. But I just kept believing in myself and had to fight until the end and I came away with the win. I’m just really happy at the moment. I’m trying to do a few things different from last year as I got off to a slow start. I want to get some good results under my belt so it takes the pressure off later.”

South Africa’s Greg Emslie (ZAF) turned heads with his upset win over Nathan Hedge (AUS) who finished last year’s tour sitting inside the top 10.

Emslie, who had an inconsistent 2005 campaign, was confidently slamming anything that came his way today and will make a serious dent in the event.

“It got a lot trickier out there as the day went on and Hedgey and I were stressing,” said Emslie. “I fell off about five waves at the start and I had to restart my mind and restart the heat in my head at the 20 minute mark. I took a few deep breaths and I calmed down and I managed to get some pretty good scores in the end."

Emslie also indicated that he had to completely change his mindset after surfing in the huge pointbreak-style waves of the past week.

“For the past week we’ve been surfing four to eight foot point breaks and this, well… is totally different in that it is a beach break,” said Emslie. “But it’s high performance and the crowd here are loving it because there are some great barrel rides and some huge aerials. I’m trying to be a lot more focused this year and concentrate on not giving an inch away to anybody. There’s no point in being here if you’re not going to have a good go at it.”

Following straight on from the Martinez’s upset victory was a blistering performance from Joel Parkinson (AUS) who locked in the highest heat score of the day, an 18.17 ahead of Peterson Rosa’s (BRA) total of 14.50.

“Parko” was in the best form of the event as he flowed into and out of deep tubes only to emerge and launch massive aerials on the finish of his waves.

“I felt good,” said a grinning Parkinson under-whelmed by his incredible showing. “There was a lot on anticipation with the move from Greenmount to here at Duranbah and all of that and the frustration of the last few days waiting… well it all came out then in that heat.”

Giving organisers full credit for the move to take advantage of the better D-Bah conditions Parkinson, a Gold Coast local, really looked at home.

“It was a great decision to bring the event here and full credit to the organisers for making the move after starting back at Greenmount,” said Parkinson. “I think, given the swell forecast, we might see the rest of the event held here. This is where I surf most of the time so this is really good luck for me that it’s here and I’m going to try to make the most of this luck and go right through to the final.”

There is also a lot of hype surrounding a potential final containing seven-time Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour champions Kelly Slater (USA) and three-time champion and current world number two, Andy Irons (HAW).

Both were in solid form easily accounting for their counterparts in Miky Picon (FRA) and David Weare (ZAF).

In claiming this particular heat Slater has racked up 450 tour heat wins and he was taken aback when the announcers gave him the stat.

“I didn’t know about that stat,” said Slater. “I would have thought that was something reserved for Sunny [Garcia]. It’s a lot of heats. You can figure out the amount of time that is… Wow! Times that by 25 minutes!”

Speaking on his performance he was slightly disappointed.

“It was hard out there and I needed to be more patient,” said Slater. “I really wanted to get out there and ride when I should have sat and waited. I made a few mistakes. I nearly left the door open for Miky to win the heat. Luckily time ran out on him. He got himself back in the heat on that last wave but the heat was over. I made the heat but I wasn’t that happy with my performance so far.”

Hanging in the back of Slater’s mind though is the fact that he has now drawn Travis Logie (ZAF) in round four. Just over four months ago, Logie nearly de-railed Slater’s title campaign when he defeated Slater in Brazil in November 2005.

“I’m still wanting to pay Travis back for that,” laughed Slater. “And his winning was in conditions that were similar to this. Obviously that is one of those losses that you don’t forget easily but you want to take that [the loss] into the next heat. If you use it the right way and focus some more, it can help. I don’t want to get too worried about it but it definitely one of those heats that I had in my grasp and I let it go.

Irons meanwhile was also little disappointed in his own performance. But he took the win in his stride and is looking forward to getting the job done on hopefully more long winding point-style waves.

“I got a bunch of small scores at the beginning and then I got one that opened up and allowed me to get some good turns in,” said Irons. “The whole time I knew that Davey could be difficult in these types of conditions but he didn’t get too many open faced waves so it was good luck for me. I came to the Gold Coast to surf the Superbank and it would be nice to surf around there tomorrow but I have some great boards that are suited to here, so bring it on!”

The forecast for tomorrow indicates that the swell will decrease but it will come back up for later in the week. If the swell that was present today is still kicking around tomorrow morning, there is every chance the event will continue at Duranbah.

While the waiting period extends to this coming Sunday, there are only three full days needed to complete the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro events.

Stay tuned to www.quiksilver.com or www.aspworldtour.com from 7am tomorrow morning (Tuesday March 7).


Round Three Results:

HEAT 1: Bobby Martinez (USA) 16.00 def Phillip MacDonald (AUS) 13.33
HEAT 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.17 def Peterson Rosa (BRA) 14.50
HEAT 3: Troy Brooks (AUS) 16.17 def Jake Paterson (AUS) 9.14
HEAT 4: Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.50 def Roy Powers (HAW) 8.33
HEAT 5: Greg Emslie (ZAF) 13.67 def Nathan Hedge (AUS) 9.77
HEAT 6: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 14.33 def Bruce Irons (HAW) 14.17
HEAT 7: Travis Logie (ZAF) 12.33 def Paulo Moura (BRA) 9.77
HEAT 8: Kelly Slater (USA) 13.34 def Mikael Picon (FRA) 10.90
HEAT 9: Andy Irons (HAW) 14.83 def David Weare (ZAF) 6.80

Round three remaining heats:

HEAT 10: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Daniel Wills (AUS)
HEAT 11: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Toby Martin (AUS)
HEAT 12: CJ Hobgood (USA) vs. Marcelo Nunes (BRA)
HEAT 13: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Pancho Sullivan (HAW)
HEAT 14: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Taylor Knox (USA)
HEAT 15: Trent Munro (AUS) vs. Adriano De Souza (BRA)
HEAT 16: Cory Lopez (USA) vs. Darren O'Rafferty (AUS)

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