Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach presented by Snickers Stop No 2. of 10 on the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia April 3 – 13, 2007<\/p>\n
BELLS BEACH, Australia (Tuesday, Apr. 3, 2007) \u0096Round 1 of the Rip Curl Pro presented by Snickers saw proven Bells Beach performers dominate proceedings in the four to six foot (one to one half metre) and slightly onshore conditions on offer today.<\/p>\n
Former champions and perennial Top 5 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour surfers Kelly Slater (USA), Andy Irons (HAW), Joel Parkinson (AUS) and Mick Fanning (AUS) made their way through the opening round of the event with ease and will advance straight to Round 3.Slater and Parkinson, both of whom made the Rip Curl Pro final last year, tied for the day\u0092s highest single wave score: 9.17 out of 10.00. Slater may have come out on top last year, but the eight-time world champ pointed to Parkinson as the surfer to beat after watching him the heat before.<\/p>\n
\u0093He did a really nice cutback to finish his 9.17 off,\u0094 Slater said. \u0093He disappeared going back into the white water and then flew out again \u0096 it was a good ride. Parko has got to expect to do well here, if you look at his record in the past five years \u0096 it\u0092s better then anybody\u0092s.\u0094<\/p>\n
Parkinson, who won the Rip Curl Pro in 2004, finished equal 5th in the first event of the year on the Gold Coast and is looking to back up that result with a similar or better finish at Bells.<\/p>\n
\u0093I definitely consider this event one of my strengths and I love surfing down here,\u0094 Parkinson said. \u0093Every year I seem to pull a result out of here. I can\u0092t count my chickens yet but I\u0092ll try my hardest.\u0094<\/p>\n
Also trying hard to back up his No. 1 finish on the season opener is 2001 Rip Curl Pro Champion Fanning. Posting the highest heat score of the day (17.00 out of 20.00), Fanning\u0092s total equaled the sum of his competitors\u0092 with local wildcard Nic Muscroft (AUS) earning 10.00 out of 20.00 and Josh Kerr (AUS) posting 7.00 out of a possible 20.00 points.<\/p>\n
Fanning and Kerr met in the Quarterfinals of the Gold Coast event last month and, between the two of them, put together one of the highest scoring heats in professional surfing history. Fanning narrowly won the heat and went on to win the event. He rode that confidence into his Round 1 romp with Kerr today.<\/p>\n
\u0093I just treated Kerr like anybody else,\u0094 Fanning said. \u0093That one heat on the Gold Coast was pretty incredible but I just went out there and did what I\u0092d normally do against anyone else today \u0096 it didn\u0092t really bother me.\u0094<\/p>\n
In a polar-opposite scenario, Irons finished last in the season opener and didn\u0092t take any chances in his heat against wildcard Matt Wilkinson (AUS). [NB: Greg Emslie, who was also seeded to surf in Irons and Wilkinson\u0092s heat, missed Round 1 due to the impending birth of his first child. Emslie will still try to make it to Bells to surf Round 2].<\/p>\n
\u0093It was really important for me to avoid Round 2 today,\u0094 Irons said. \u0093There was about two minutes left and Wilkinson needed a 7.00. I wasn\u0092t going to give him any chances. I paddled up the point so he wouldn\u0092t get a wave underneath me. Things happen, and it\u0092s happened to me before so I wasn\u0092t going to give him a chance to get through.\u0094
\nCurrent World No. 3 Taj Burrow (AUS) squeaked through his heat over rookies Luke Munro (AUS) and Ben Dunn (AUS) today with a last minute victory today.<\/p>\n
\u0093I\u0092m lucky to come out with a win in that heat,\u0094 Burrow said. \u0093It was chunky and just hard to find a clean face to get some nice turns off. I fell a couple of times and just struggled to find that right wave. It was really close and those guys were surfing really good; it was a nail biter for me that\u0092s for sure.\u0094<\/p>\n
Also straight to Round 3 is Bede Durbidge (AUS) who finished runner-up to Fanning on the Gold Coast. Durbidge used the momentum from that result to blast past Hawaii\u0092s Fred Pattachia and crowd favorite and former Bells Beach winner Mark Occhilupo (AUS).<\/p>\n
\u0093I\u0092m still the dark horse; everybody still treats me the same\u0094 Durbidge said. \u0093I have no sponsor so I\u0092m just going to keep working and keep climbing those ratings. It\u0092s so prestigious this comp; it would be awesome to get on that podium and ring that Bell.\u0094<\/p>\n
French rookie Jeremy Flores, Brazilians Adriano de Souza and Leonardo Neves and Travis Logie of South Africa also advanced through their Round 1 heats today.<\/p>\n
Transcribed athlete interviews, audio files, hi-res images and television news feed details as well as heat by heat info are available at www.aspworldtour.com and www.ripcurl.com\/ripcurlpro. <\/p>\n
Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach Round 1 Results \u0096 1st advances to Round 3, 2nd and 3rd surf Round 2 Heat 1: Chris Ward (USA) 14.33; Dean Morrison (AUS) 11.10; Royden Bryson (ZAF) 8.67 Heat 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.50; Taylor Knox (USA) 11.24; Dayyan Neve (AUS) 8.83 Heat 3: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 12.50; Kai Otton (AUS) 8.00; Neco Padaratz (BRA) DNS Heat 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.66; Damien Hobgood (USA) 11.77; Bernado Pigmeu (BRA) 9.13 Heat 5: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.67; Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 14.44; Gabe Kling (USA) 10.84 Heat 6: Travis Logie (ZAF) 12.67; Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 10.83; Bobby Martinez (USA) 8.50 Heat 7: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.36; Luke Munro (AUS) 12.67; Ben Dunn (AUS) 11.17 Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.84; Mick Campbell (AUS) 9.17; Owen Wright (AUS) 6.00 Heat 9: Andy Irons (HAW) 13.66; Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 12.07; Greg Emslie (ZAF) DNS Heat 10: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.00; Nic Muscroft (AUS) 10.00; Josh Kerr (AUS) 7.00 Heat 11: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.00; Cory Lopez (USA) 10.17; Luke Stedman (AUS) 7.84 Heat 12: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 12.93; Phil MacDonald (AUS) 12.84; Troy Brooks (AUS) 11.27 Heat 13: Bruce Irons (HAW) 14.23; Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 10.83; Victor Ribas (BRA) 6.10 Heat 14: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.33; Fred Patacchia (HAW) 12.10; Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 11.16 Heat 15: Leonardo Neves (BRA) 13.16; CJ Hobgood (USA) 12.07; Mick Lowe (AUS) 6.13 Heat 16: Danny Wills (AUS) 15.93; Shaun Cansdell (AUS) 8.03; Trent Munro (AUS) 4.17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach presented by Snickers Stop No 2. of 10 on the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia April 3 – 13, 2007 BELLS BEACH, Australia (Tuesday, Apr. 3, 2007) \u0096Round 1 of the Rip Curl Pro presented by Snickers saw proven Bells Beach performers dominate proceedings in … Continue reading “USUAL SUSPECTS DOMINATE DAY ONE OF THE RIP CURL PRO AT BELLS BEACH”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surfing-news-archive","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}