Brazilian Adriano de Souza has won the Billabong Pro, Rio, Brazil and has moved to number 1 in the World! Adriano is a hard working and dedicated athlete who from a young age was marked to be a possible world champion!
In the final, Adriano took down Taj Burrows in tricky 1m Surf at Barra da Tijuca Rio. Adriano had this to say after the final:
“There are no words to express how I feel right now,” De Souza said. “Thanks to my manger for pushing me every day, I couldn’t have done this without him. Thanks so much to my fans, who have been on the beach supporting me from the beginning to the end and to my sponsors. I’m happy to keep the title in Brazil one more time.”
De Souza, who is now the frontrunner on the ASP World Title Rankings, was also apprehensive in announcing his current position atop the elite standings.
“It’s still very early days and next event will be J Bay so I’m going to be pushing myself,” De Souza said. “Kelly (Slater) and all of these guys are such amazing surfers and have been on tour for such a long time, but I’m going to try my best.”
The Contest was however one of big upsets and a few controversial incidents. South African Jordy Smith and American Kelly Slater lost in early heats and ended up with 13th place finishes.
The most talked about heat was the Quarterfinal featuring Adriano de Souza vs. Owen Wright. Adriano was scored an 8.23 for 1 floater on a wave. It was however a bigger wave and there is a lot of discussion about this score or over score if you may, but one thing that I did appreciate was ASP sending out a release explaining how they got to that score, a first for ASP and I think it is a great step forward to getting the public to understand the criteria and hear the judges view!
The Quiksilver ISA World Junior games have begun in Peru. South Africa had a smashing first day as all our Junior team members won their round 1 heats. Good start South Africa, now go all the way and bring home gold!
Greg Emslie