Maroubra’s Blake Thornton has taken out the inaugural Bacardi Surf Tour after claiming victory in the Hemingway’s Manly Pro at South Curl Curl Beach, Sydney. 

In a day full of twists and turns the overall Tour Champion was decided in the final heat of the Tour with Thornton defeating Bondi’s Perth Standlick in the man on man final, 16.83 to 14.13. The stylish natural footer started strong, opening up with an 8-point ride that he soon backed up with the highest score of the day – 8.83. Standlick waited patiently for a good wave and found an 8.63 late in the final but ran out of time chasing down the 8.21 required for victory.

Bacardi Surf Tour Champion Blake Thornton (Pic throwingbuckets.com.au)

Before taking on Standlick in the final Thornton survived a massive Semi Final match up against Manly’s Dayyan Neve. If Neve won the Semi he would have won the Tour and it all came down to Neve’s last wave. Needing a 6.48 Neve executed a series of strong forehand maneuvers but fell short of the score required by less than a point with the judges locking in a 5.6. Thornton won 13.30 to 12.43.

“It’s quite surreal how the whole day played out,” said Thornton. “I thought Nic (Squiers) would run away with it given his lead and the conditions but when he lost early it left the door open and created a lot of exciting scenarios. In my head I was just set on winning the event and thinking that was the only way I could take the series out, I peaked in the final and surfed my best heat when it counted. It was a sick series and a top bunch of blokes to surf against all year.”

Standlick was the form surfer going into the final posting the highest heat totals in the Semi and Quarter Finals. “It was rad that the whole series came down to the last heat of the five events,” Standlick said. “It was a fun final to be apart of.”

After competing in all five events Neve was stoked to be back in the comp rash shirt with his competitive juices re-ignited. “I was devastated losing the Semi Final to Blake as I really wanted to win the Tour,” Neve said. “I enjoyed competing in all the events and it was good to surf against the younger guys as well. I was jealous of Blake winning the overall trophy but he worked really hard and deserved the win.”

Avalon young gun Letty Mortensen was the giant killer on the day knocking Nic Squiers out of the event in Round 2, which really opened the door for Thornton, Standlick and Neve to take the overall Title. In his first Bacardi Surf Tour event, Mortensen powered through the draw defeating Gerard McCallum 14.10 to 9.27 in the Quarter Finals before narrowly going down to Standlick 14.33 to 13.67 in the Semi Finals.

“Pretty happy to finish 3rd in my first Bacardi event,” said Mortensen. “To get an 8.67 and then not be able to get a mid range back up in the Semi was a bummer. The whole day was tricky conditions and you really just had to find those corners that were going to give you some opportunity. It was so cool to have guys like Matt Bemrose and ex CT surfer Dayyan Neve in the event, there’s so many good surfers doing these events so you really have to bring you’re A-Game. Next time I’d love to take the win.”

Thornton cleaned up on the day receiving $2500 for winning the Tour, $1000 for winning the Hemingway’s Pro and a $900 G-Shock for the highest wave score of the day.

Blake Thornton Results – 2016 Bacardi Surf Tour

• Triple Bull Cronulla Pro 1st
• Aloha Manly Style Pro 7th – Retired injured in Semi Final
• Stowaway Pro 9th – Defeated by Dayyan Neve
• Deck Bar Pro 9th – Defeated by Shane Holmes
• Hemingway’s Pro 1st 

Hemingway’s Manly Pro Results

• 1st Blake Thornton 16.83
• 2nd Perth Standlick 14.13
• 3rd Letty Mortensen
• 3rd Dayyan Neve
• 5th Gerard McCallum
• 5th Dane Atcheson
• 5th Ben Penny
• 5th Matt Bemrose

Bacardi Surf Tour Final Ratings

• 1st Blake Thornton 2695
• 2nd Nic Squiers 2420
• 3rd Dayyan Neve 2400
• 4th Perth Standlick 2340
• 5th Dane Atcheson 1795

The 2016 Hemingway’s Manly Pro is proudly supported by Bacardi, G-Shock and Swellnet.  

For all Bacardi Surf Tour information including Live Scores, Entry Forms, Heat Draws and Ratings visit www.globalsurftag.com 

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