Dusty Payne and Carissa Moore, the winning Hawaiians in Australia. Photos: ASP/Robertson
The final day of the waiting period for the 2013 Drug Aware Margaret River Pro ran in six to eight foot inconsistent but powerful south west swell at Surfers Point in Margaret River, Australia. The powerful Haleiwa-like waves at Surfers Point proved to be especially to the liking of Hawaiians Carissa Moore and Dusty Payne, both of whom were crowned as this year’s event champions. Super Sunday ran 10 heats total, and saw everything from low scoring heat affairs, to one sided heat victories, to shootout high performance and high scoring nail biters.
The men’s Prime event got things started in the early morning hours with Quarter Final wins by Julian Wilson, Dusty Payne, Josh Kerr, and Adrian Buchan. Julian would go down to Dusty in a high scoring exciting Semi Final number one by a heat score of 18.00 to 17.16, while Josh would go on to defeat Adrian in Semi Final number two with low heat scores of 10.77 and 9.43 respectively. Dusty remained the in-form surfer of the event in the Finals scoring rides of 9.23 and 7.13 for a combined heat score of 16.36 to Josh’s 13.20.
The women’s event (event #2 on the 2013 ASP WCT) was; witness to the continued progression of women’s professional surfing, solidification for the top ranked ladies of the women’s WCT, witness to increasingly deeper competitive rivalry. In Semi Final number one, Carissa Moore eliminated current World Champ Stephanie Gilmore in a wave starved low scoring heat. Semi Final number 2 on the other hand was a very high scoring heat filled with high drama, with Tyler Wright defeating Sally Fitzgibbons for the second time this year with a heat score of 18.43 to Sally’s 14.83. The drama came when Tyler after receiving a 9.5 wave score got pushed onto the dry reef, and sustained a yet to be properly diagnosed leg injury. Unfortunately the Finals were anticlimactic, with the wave conditions deteriorating and both ladies consistently finding themselves out of position, and out of rhythm with the ocean.
The Drug Ware Margaret River Pro is a new addition to the Women’s ASP World Championship Tour in 2013, and is scheduled to be added to the Men’s ASP World Championship Tour starting in 2014.
