Whatshot
The Quiksilver Pro
The Quiksilver Pro
Nat Young (USA), 25, launched his French campaign with an important Round 1 win over Championship Tour veteran Joel Parkinson (AUS) and rookie Matt Banting (AUS), to skip elimination Round 2. Young started on a frothy solid righthander and kept a high line to navigate a deep tube on his backhand, exited cleanly to perform two turns on the open face for a 7.17, the morning's biggest score.
"That's kind of been the story of the morning, there were really good waves out there, it's just a matter of finding them," Young stated. "I started that heat off with a good one pretty much at the start and I knew I just had to back it up cause it's hard to find a good wave in 30 minutes out there, let alone two."
In a wave-starved second heat, Keanu Asing (HAW) took down 11-time WSL Champion Kelly Slater (USA) and Kanoa Igarashi (USA) to advance directly into Round 3 as well. Asing locked in two average scores with two turns on a righthander and a big backhand closeout hit on a left later in the heat. Slater, who had the heat's biggest score was unable to back it up and placed second. "It's nice to finally beat Kelly because I've never got him before," said Asing.
The Quiksilver and Roxy Pro France will be webcast LIVE on worldsurfleague.com