2003 Nova Schin Festival
Cory Lopez (FL, USA) earlier overcame the daunting prospect of facing two Brazilians in front of a patriotic audience. Against local Florianopolis surfing hero Flavio Padaratz and fellow countryman Danilo Costa, the Floridian could hear the crowd's vocal support of his opponents, but used this as added fuel to charge into round three. Older brother Shea also progressed the following match.
"There's a lot of people here and the Brazilians are really into it, like a soccer atmosphere," began Lopez. "They're really into their sports, and I had two Brazilians in my heat, and I could hear the crowd kind of booing me after one wave (laughs). But you take that negative energy and use it against them. I knew it was going to be tough, especially against Flavio, as he knows all the spots around here really well. I just got lucky to find the better waves."
Chris Davidson (Narrabeen) posted a big win over 1999 world champ Mark Occhilupo (Gold Coast) and fellow Australian Darren O'Rafferty (Port Macquarie) in the second last heat of round one. Occy unleashed some big turns on both his forehand and backhand, but 'Davo' found a great backhand barrel to score an 8.0, and then his final 7.1 pushed him through.
"Pretty stoked about beating Occ," said Davidson. "We had a bit of a grudge match, so it feels good to get him. I saw the section on that left and wasn't going to pull in, but then it opened up and I had a go, and then did a little turn afterward and got an eight.
"I love coming to Brazil," he added, having won a major 6-Star WQS here last year. "I just want to do well here again and hopefully keep moving up the ratings. I'm doing well on the WQS, but I want to qualify for next year's tour though the WCT for once."
Another decision will be made at 8am tomorrow morning at Joaquina.
Nova Schin Festival WCT Brasil Round One Heats (1st>Rnd3; 2nd&3rd>Rnd2)
H12: Cory Lopez (Brz) 13.93; Flavio Padaratz (Brz) 12.0; Danilo Costa (Brz) 7.7
H13: Shea Lopez (Brz) 15.43; Luke Stedman (Aus) 13.33; Shane Powell (Aus) 10.4
H14: Luke Hitchings (Aus) 14.83; Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.2; Armando Daltro (Brz) 5.54
H15: Chris Davidson (Aus) 15.1; Mark Occhilupo (Aus) 14.53; Darren O'Rafferty (Aus) 11.96
H16: Lee Winkler (Aus) 11.03; Phil MacDonald (Aus) 10.24; Beau Emerton (Aus) 9.6
Round Two (1st>Rnd3; 2nd=33rd receives US$3,000)
H1: Andy Irons (Haw) 10.67 def. Fabricio Machado (Brz) 9.17
H2: Mick Lowe (Aus) 14.16 def. Diego Rosa (Brz) 10.5
H3: Taylor Knox (USA) def. Leonardo Neves (Brz)
www.waves.com.br
Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) www.aspworldtour.com
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