Bruce and Andy Irons spent the greater part of their heat waiting on Monday, Mar. 7 at the Quiksilver Pro Presented by Boost Mobile at Snapper Rocks. There was nothing available for the scoring department until just before the 15-minute
Bruce and Andy Irons spent the greater part of their heat waiting on Monday, Mar. 7 at the Quiksilver Pro Presented by Boost Mobile at Snapper Rocks.
There was nothing available for the scoring department until just before the 15-minute mark, Andy taking an average-looking wave and nailing a vertical gouge into it, followed by a few hooks to open his account with a six.
A few minutes later, Bruce took off snapping and carving, looking smooth as he sleuthed through his wave, but Andy was more solid and precise on the wave behind.
Confidently lacing some flair in, extending his turns more, Andy was rewarded with a 9.4 while Bruce yielded 8.5, needing a 6.91.
Good waves continued to be hard to find, and Andy backed up, putting his foot down to earn a 7.33 for four solid moves while Bruce’s odds slipped to needing an 8.24 at the end of the heat.
The ocean was a moody tart for the heat of the morning that pitted the reigning world champion Andy against younger brother Bruce.
Until this event, the brothers have managed one victory apiece from two man-on-man heats over the past two seasons.
Bruce took out Andy in the second round of the Boost Mobile Pro at Trestles in 2003, while Andy comfortably took the final from his younger sibling in the Quiksilver Pro France last year.
In the slow start, Fred Patacchia came from behind with an 8.57 over Trent Munro, and finished with a 9.0 pointer to move on, the first surfer through to the quarters, matching his best result from last year.
Mick Fanning topped CJ Hobgood as an errant judgement on wave selection put Fanning in perfect position to pick up a following wave, ending with a barrel inside to grab a 9.17 score.
With Hobgood holding onto a priority needing an 8.38, Fanning took an insider drifing a massive floater and then laying a classic full rail extended cut-back before falling.
Heat five saw Tom Whitaker lock in a 9.43 behind four moves that included some carves that had the huge crowd and the judges impressed, locking in a 9.43.
With eight minutes remaining, and conditions appearing to get a bit grovelly, Whitaker took a small runner that built into a good shoulder-sized wave inside to extract a 6 to exit Parko.
Kelly Slater ruled heat seven over Richie Lovett who didn’t manage beyond a 5.5 while Slater included an 8.4 and 8.33 as his scorers with a 7.33 and 6.5 as backups.
Chris Ward continued his dynamic and diverse premiere WCT performance to snatch an eight-pointer on his first scoring wave enroute to dispatching Troy Brooks who finished needing a 6.5.
As the quarter finals got underway, Munro opened with a 9.93 on his first wave against Hobgood.
