Defending Surf Master champion and top seed for the Australian Surf Masters rebounded following a poor first round to post excellent scores Sept. 5 at Bells Beach, Australia. “I was rattled the other day when I finished third in my
Defending Surf Master champion and top seed for the Australian Surf Masters rebounded following a poor first round to post excellent scores Sept. 5 at Bells Beach, Australia.
“I was rattled the other day when I finished third in my heat and only just progressed. Normally, I do really well out at Bells and I started poorly. But today, I feel much better and have my confidence back,” Thornton said. “I feel I can truly defend my title now but it’s a quality field here this year so I’ll need to stay on top of my own form.”
Thornton was a surprise third place finisher in his round one heat Sunday.
Philippe Didelot of South Australia was the first surfer to score a 9-point ride at Bells as the goofy foot showed his enjoyment of larger waves on his final ride in his round three heat, attacked it with a series of bottom and top turns for the win over Michael O’Rafferty, states a release from Surfersville Global Surf News.
Former World Championship Touring surfer Glyndwyn Ringrose eclipsed Didelot’s performance when he posted a 9.5 ride when he executed his specialty long drawn-out floaters over Sandy Ryan of Phillip Island.
“There’s not a lot of waves out there, but when they do come, they are a lot of fun,” Ringrose said. “I was lucky to find that last ride. Ten minutes into the heat, I was still waveless so I sort of lifted the urgency out there and finally found some good rides.”
Other top performances came from Paul Parkes who posted an 8.33 and an 8 point ride to advance along with Dave Reardon-Smith of Queensland who found an excellent 8.5 ride to advance in second place behind Parkes.
Jirah Laws and John Robertson, both from Jan Juc, were familiar with the waves at Bells to advance while Peter Huges and Simon Collier were eliminated from the event.
Robertson is surfing in both the Open and Over 28 divisions and advanced through both his rounds.
“I’m just stoked to be able to surf Bells like this with only three others in the water,” Robertson said. “I want more surf sessions like that for sure.”
The heat draws for all divisions can be found at the Surfing Australia Web site and will be updated daily with the event finals expected to run on Friday and Saturday.
The Australian Surf Masters is full of tradition, state pride and quality surfers and is possible due to contributions from Surfing Australia, Surfing Victoria and Play It Safe by the Water.
