Surfer Chris Ward oversleeps, arrives late, bows out of Quiksilver Pro France
The Quiksilver Pro France is sputtering along because of small surf and poor conditions, but at least the second round is complete and elimination rounds will begin as early as Saturday morning.
Speaking of sputtering along, San Clemente's Chris Ward missed his first-round heat because of confusion regarding the schedule. That relegated him to the second-round losers' bracket. Ward, who is ranked No. 32 on the ASP World Tour and on the re-qualifying bubble, reportedly overslept and arrived 15 minutes late for his second-round heat.
Australia's Ben Dunn, who was paired against Ward, surfed alone for 15 minutes but was unable to catch any high-scoring waves until Ward arrived. Then sets began to come in and Dunn, who is ranked No. 26, dominated the remainder of the 30-minute heat. Using high-speed floaters and power turns in two- to three-foot surf at Les Bourdaines, he won with a two-best-waves score of 14.50.
“Wardo missed his Round 1 heat and I thought he was going to show up for today’s heat because I saw him yesterday, but he said he overslept or something," Dunn said. "It was still pretty even when he arrived though as I couldn’t get any waves.”
Huntington Beach surfer Timmy Reyes lost in the second round to Hawaii's Roy Powers. Reyes is tied with Dunn at the No. 26 ratings spot. The Quiksilver Pro is the seventh of 10 World Tour contests.
Here are the third-round heat matchups:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Nic Muscroft (AUS)
Heat 2: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 3: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 4: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Phillip MacDonald (AUS)
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 6: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Dustin Barca (HAW)
Heat 7: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Patrick Beven (FRA)
Heat 9: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Joan Duru (FRA)
Heat 10: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 11: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 12: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Tim Boal (FRA)
Heat 13: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Julian Wilson (AUS)
Heat 14: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 15: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Aritz Aranburu (EUK)
Heat 16: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. Chris Davidson (AUS)
-- Pete Thomas
Photo: Brazil's Heitor Alves (pictured) defeated Australia's Jay Thompson in the second round of the Quiksilver Pro France. Credit: Credit: © ASP/ CI/ Scholtz via Getty Images
To Mark:
The ASP regards Hawaii as a separate entity out of respect for that state's contribution to surfing. I agree that it makes things confusing at times. --Pete
Posted by: Pete Thomas | September 25, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Bummer to see the local OC boys bowing out of the competition this early.
Posted by: Jeff | September 25, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Why are competitors from Hawaii listed as being from HAW and not USA like all the others?
Posted by: Mark | September 25, 2009 at 11:36 AM