Adriano De Souza wins Drug Aware Margaret River Pro
MARGARET RIVER, Western Australia (Friday, April 24, 2015) - Adriano de Souza has won the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro, the third stop on the Samsung Galaxy World Surf League Championship Tour . Main Break delivered another morning of great conditions and the world’s best surfers battled each other to win the event. An exciting clash saw De Souza claim his fifth CT victory and defeat John John Florence in a thrilling Final.
“I’ve just beaten the best surfer on the planet!” said De Souza. “I’m so happy and I feel so motivated. After reaching the Final in Bells and not winning I was really spurred on. It’s such an honor to put my name on the stairs here. Every morning I walk down them and see those names and just wish that my name would be there some day.”
De Souza’s tenth year on the CT has seen an incredible run of form for the Brazilian who has had a fantastic start to 2015 after a Semifinal berth on the Gold Coast and a runner-up finish at Bells Beach. The win today sees him claim the gold leader jersey and move to the top of the rankings heading into the fourth event of the year, the Oi Rio Pro.
“John John (Florence) is one of the most crazy talents we have on Tour and we just had a blast out there,” continued De Souza. “I’ve been watching John John through this event and he’s been killing it. I’m really motivated going into Rio and I feel like I have to keep improving and putting in hard work.”
De Souza previously eliminated Taj Burrow and 11-time World Champion Kelly Slater on his way to the Final.
“I think everything that happened in this contest was a challenge,” said De Souza. “We had great conditions at The Box and amazing conditions at Main Break. I really believed in myself out there and I’m so happy and so pleased to win. The World Title race is well and truly underway now and people will definitely be trying to catch me.”
Today is the first Final appearance of the year for Florence and his fifth in CT history. A runner-up finish at Margaret River marks a return to form for the Hawaiian after two 13th-place finishes at the opening two events of the season. The result is his best of the year and moves him up to eighth place place on the rankings heading into Rio. Florence, the 2012 event winner, previously dispatched Nat Young in the Semifinals and wildcard Jay Davies in the Quarterfinals.
“I love coming down here,” said Florence. “Last year I lost early and didn’t get the chance to surf at The Box in a heat so it’s been a really amazing event to surf over there and then come to Main Break and do the biggest turns you can possibly do. The end section is really tricky, it’s really flat then doubles up and it’s really hard to time it right and I made a couple of mistakes. I was stoked to get one really good wave in the Final though. Adriano (de Souza) is so gnarly, he’s so consistent with everything. He only caught two waves out there and they were both high eights and I was blown away.”
De Souza and Florence have had two previous head-to-head CT match-ups, winning one apiece. Today’s Final got off to an exciting start with an opening exchange that saw De Souza deliver two big carving turns ending with a free-fall drop for an excellent 8.93 while Florence failed to complete his ride and earned a 7.00. Florence also went down on his second wave for a 7.87 and again on his third wave. De Souza continued to display his critical surfing for another strong score, an 8.60 for a 17.53 heat total and the lead. Florence was able to complete his fourth wave and was rewarded with a near-perfect 9.00 but it wasn’t enough to take the lead and the Hawaiian was left chasing an 8.53. The Brazilian had priority and took a wave with one minute remaining to block Florence and secure the win.
Nat Young secured his second Semifinal berth of the year after taking on Florence in the opening Semifinal, the first man-on-man heat for the pair in CT history. Florence was the first to post a significant score, an excellent 8.17, and take the lead. Young delivered three small scores but was left in a combination situation after the young Hawaiian backed up his score with a 7.00. Young answered quickly but couldn’t break the combination. With seven minutes remaining the Californian found his best wave for an excellent score but Florence immediately came back to improve his score and take the win. Today’s result sees Young move up to fifth place on the rankings.
“It’s been an interesting contest surfing The Box on my backhand and surfing really big Margarets,” Young said. “I had a lot of good heats and I’m stoked with the way I surfed. Obviously that last heat wasn’t what I wanted after waiting for six days, but I did what I could out there. I knew it was going to be a tough heat, John John (Florence) is incredible at The Box and a former winner here, but I knew I could beat him if I surf the way I did earlier in the event, but I didn’t put myself on the best waves and that’s how the heat ended.”
An incredibly close heat unfolded between local surfer Taj Burrow and De Souza in the second Semifinal. Today is the 17th CT match-up for the pair and Burrow still holds the edge with 10 wins to De Souza’s seven. Burrow, the 1997 event winner, took the first ride of the heat with three strong maneuvers on a left and the Brazilian quickly responded with a series of smooth carves. With the pair neck and neck at the halfway point each of surfers found a wave. De Souza was rewarded with a 7.03 to take the lead while Burrow received a 5.77. The local surfer failed to complete a ride at the five-minute mark and another strong ride from De Souza saw him increase his lead, holding on to it for the remaining minutes of the heat and taking the win. The result is Burrow’s best of the year and sees him move up to sixth place on the rankings.
“I’m pretty devastated that I couldn’t find a wave in the end there,” Burrow said. “I had plenty of opportunities throughout the heat and I let Adriano (de Souza) get under my skin after we hassled each other at the start. I don’t like surfing heats like that, it bugs me. I had a good start to the heat and I just couldn’t find a six at the end there, which is the most frustrating part because you could get a six so easily out there. My board just felt a little long and it didn’t quite go my way.”
Drug Aware Margaret River Pro Men’s Final Results:
- 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) - 17.53
- 2: John John Florence (HAW) - 16.87
Drug Aware Margaret River Pro Men’s Semifinal Results:
- SF 1: John John Florence (HAW) 16.87 def. Nat Young (USA) 12.90
- SF 2: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.66 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.27
Comments
great viewing, de Souza caught two waves, jj fell 4 times i think and best of all, joe talked non stop the whole final. what a sham, heaps of fantastic unridden swells going by.
dave the blue pill barney,
there is a mute button on your 'puter... not to mention that two waves is all it takes.
one day you might just figure this out.
but we all doubt it.
ADS is a great surfer! He's learned the formula from Medina. At the level they surf, if you complete a ride on your feet you generally win the heat. So it seems to me that nowadays unfortunately it's the safest surfer with radical elements rather than the guy who takes the most risks. It's a formula that is working around 90% of the time. JJF should have won the final on the turns he was doing before he sensibly decided not to OD himself on the bricks. The waves were bigger the turns much more vertical, successfully completed and showed commitment and progression. ADS can do all those same things but he read the judges better. It might be just me, but I know I would prefer to see radical, committed and progressive surfing triumph over safe and pretty surfing. ADS deserved to win because after years of getting shafted because he often takes a chance, he decided to play the game for the judges. TB, Jordy, Owen, Julian Wilson, Felipe, Kerrsy, Kolohe in the men, Silvana, Courtney and Tyler in the women are just a few that have been ripped off because of increasingly uninspired, misdirected and frustratingly inconsistent judging decisions. Keiran Perrow has fixed up the Commisioners job. Pay him another 50 grand to work with Ritchie Porta to sort out the Judging. Imagine having guys like Sunny Garcia, Bruce Irons, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian etc Judging. They haven't been out of the tour for too long, still understand what the surfers expect to be rewarded for and will pay respect to the memory of Andy Irons' progressive attitude in the approaches of the current crop of superstars. Surely the WSL has the money to pay guys similar to those I've mentioned and for them to put something back into the sport they still love and get so much from. The reason why Kelly, Mick in the mens and Laney, Stephanie and Carissa have won multiple world titles is their ability to successfully complete progressive manouveurs during their heats. It seems to me that over the last couple of years it has gradually changed to the surfer who can successfully complete their closeout move on their feet. I my opinion that score should be the least important as you should have already ridden the wave to the best of your ability.
Finally one more whinge that Kelly Slater reminded me of in the Ross Williams interview. One Manouveur 10's on point or reef breaks shouldn't happen! It means you've taken off in the wrong spot or chosen a closeout. Watch the way Felipe Toledo is including it into the ride as a functional move. He uses it instead of a cutback or a way to reduce his speed. It's why he is currently the in form surfer on tour.
Lets face it the top two hundred surfer's in world can beat anyone on their day and at their home break (except for maybe Kelly:)) Check out some of Albee Layer's videos!!!
i think Adriano has taken a leaf out of Fanning's playbook, both in style and the 'play it safe' approach i.e. smoother and more in control.
Florence fell where Adriano was nailing some neat moves on that weird arsed close out section. Florence wasn't always trying nutso moves on the end, but he was mis-timing it and/or getting belted by 6 foot of whitewater.
i agree, Florence did some bigger/faster/more critical carves at the start of the waves, brilliant sure, but they were similar to and not miles ahead of Adriano's and not enough to overcome one less move at the end.
the takeway for Florence: if you're gonna do less moves, or fall, then the one or two moves you do make need to be sicker.
great comp, great result.
What about Adrianos drop at the box ?
Nothing safe about that.
To be honest, I stopped following the comp after they stopped running on the Saturday 18th
JJF's turns were nuts just no holds barred, balls to the wall man turns. As Nickg said they weren't enough to swing it but they are certainly taste of things to come. If he doesn't fall he will win everything in big waves. The guy is a dead set freak in decent surf. Adriano is the ultimate street fighter I just hope he isn't like that in free surfs as he would certainly upset many and become extremely unpopular which is a shame as I am really enjoying his surfing at the moment.
Agree with the safe approach theories as stated above. That's why the Box is a great contest wave when it's big, pretty hard to play it safe out there, it's all or nothing.......
Yep, I agree with you all. Adriano should be very proud of himself he definitely deserved the win. It all comes down to personal opinion I guess and JJF will no doubt get his chance. I feel sorry for Taj without doubt one of the best surfers not to win a World title. I guess somebody has to lose and he has had some pretty awesome opposition. Still not too shabby a lifestyle for the last 20 years:)
One could say that it's Taj's 'lifestyle choices' that have kept him from being a title holder...
Bang on Blowin re: the drop at the box.
ADS earnt that win, and it's good to see the comments here steer away from the nasty 'JJF is my favourite surfer and ADS is brazillian so I don't like him' flavour that is dominating many of the other surfing websites' comments sections.
The thing about 'play it safe' is that you still need to do enough to win. De Souza ain't going with a Bradbury strategy here. Fanning's strategy is a good one to liken it to, but I reckon it's closer to Kelly's.
Before you spit your cuppa tea over the computer screen, I'm only comparing their contest strategy, which is: Get inside your opponent's head and do just enough to win. Kelly uses mind games, De Souza hassles. Neither will go for a 10 when they only need a 7.
ADS has learnt from the best in the game and that's why his heats vs Kelly are so incredible to watch.
I'm feeling it hard to sympathise with Kelly in regards to being hassled during heats after the Shane Beshon incident at Huntington years ago....very Damien Hardman at the Narrabeen Coke Classic ie despicable.