Emslie burns up Brazilian breakers
17 February 2003
Greg Emslie of East London excelled in the first major ASP World Qualifying Series
event of 2003 with an impressive third place finish, scoring a massive 1 095 WQS points and pocketing US$3 000 in prize money.
East London surfers dominated in the four-star rated event, held at Fernando
de Noronha in Brazil, with Royden Bryson the next highest placed South African in equal 13th position.
Emslie was in fine form throughout the tournament, winning every heat he
surfed on his way to the final, as well as scoring one of the best wave
scores with a perfect 10 that he achieved in the semi-finals.
The fourth-best wave score of the event was shared by Emslie and David Weare
of Durban, who posted 9.83 out of a possible 10 points. The same pair also
laid claim to some of the event’s top heat totals.
Emslie, who is hell bent on requalifying for next year’s World Championship Tour, notched up 9.83 and 8.27 points in the
hotly contested final finishing third, only 0.23 points behind ultimate winner, Neco Padaratz, and a mere 0.2 points behind second-placed Bobby Martinez of the USA. Brazilian Daison Pereira trailed in fourth place, scoring 13.20 out of a possible 20 points.
Earlier in the event, Emslie suffered the misfortune of snapping all of his surfboards, and surfed to third place riding fellow countryman Ricky Basnett’s board.
Bryson advanced through three tough rounds to make the quarterfinals, where he was ousted out in fourth place behind three Brazilians. Durbanite David Weare made it to the fourth round in style, where he bowed out in a noteworthy equal 25th place.
2002 World Championship Tour surfer Paul Canning was forced to settle for equal 33rd slot following his third-round elimination by Brazilians Saulo Junior and
Beto Fernandes.
Fellow South African Daniel Redman placed fourth in the same heat, finishing equal 49th. Durban surf coach Kevin Olsen won his
first heat, but took equal 49th in round three.
Durbanite Travis Logie, who won a major World Qualifying Series event in Brazil last year, was disappointed to be eliminated by local surfers in his opening heat, taking equal 33rd. Llewellyn Whittaker of Mossel Bay cruised through one round to place
equal 33rd in the round of 64.
Round of 96 casualties included Simon Nicholson of Durban and Ricky Basnett of
Bluff in equal 65th position; Warwick Wright placed equal 81st.
With the event being one of the first World Qualifying Series events of 2003, the lower-placed South Africans will have ample opportunity to catch up in the events that lie ahead.
Source:ASP Africa
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