The third event in the 2013 ASP World Championship Tour, 2013 Billabong Pro Rio, kicked off this Wednesday in Rio Dejanaro, Brazil. The sunny weather and 3-to-5 foot waves offered perfect conditions for these professional surfers to get out there and show everyone what they’ve got, and that’s exactly what happened during the first round. There’s still plenty of surfing left for the Billabong Pro Rio, but it already has some people talking. Here we’ll take a look at the events that unfolded during the first round of surfing at Billabong Pro Rio and reveal who came out on top.
As some of you may already know, the American-borne all-pro surfer Kelly Slater is leading the pack with a first place standing at the 2013 ASP World Championship Tour. With 11,750, he’s sitting pretty comfortably in this position to say the least. However, there was some debate over whether or not he would perform well at the Billabong Pro Rio. You may recall an incident on last year’s tour that forced him to sit out at the Billabong Pro Rio. Slater had twisted his ankle beforehand and was advised by doctors to wait a couple weeks for it to fully heal. I’m sure it was a tough decision for him, but Slater took his doctor’s advice and passed on last year’s Billabong Pro Rio.
Although he didn’t participate in last year’s Billabong Pro Rio event, Slater still surfed the Brazilian waves like a champ during 2013’s first round. Slater stated the he expected a lot of barrels, but instead most of the waves were closeouts. Even so, he didn’t seem to have a problem pulling some incredible numbers by the judges. During the first round, Slater dominated his opponents with an incredible 16.30 points. Want to know how many points his opponents got? Well, they weren’t even able to make it past 5. Therefore, Slater came away with the first round win by a long shot.
Of course, another surfer who stood out from the rest during the first round is Nat Young. He won first place in the rookie division with 11.46 points of 20, while Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro scored a close 9.74. Because of his first place finish, Young will skip the second round at the Billabong Pro and go straight through to the third. At just 21 years of age, Nat Young is one of the youngest surfers to compete, but this certainly doesn’t show when you see him barreling out on the ocean.