Junior Champion knocked out of SOUL Australian Longboard Open!
Kevin Holt (NSW/Wollongong), the state champion survived a very tough round 2
Queensland’s Ben Fesselet (Agnes Water’s) was the big upset elimination on day 3 of the SOUL Australian Longboard Titles. Fesselet has been an outstanding junior Queensland representative at these titles over the past few years and capped off his great junior career by winning the Australian Junior Longboard title last year in WA.
But his reputation counted for nothing as he jumped into the Open Men’s division today and the talented Goofy foot was eliminated in his round two heat.
The heat always looked stacked with NSW state champion Kevin Holt and talented Victorian surfer Jordie Brown facing Fesselet and throughout the twenty minute heat this morning all three surfers scored good waves and the lead changed multiple times.
To make it even more difficult for Fesselet both Brown and Holt chose to move down the beach to a separate sand bank and both found superior waves on that bank and scored their top rides to advance with Brown winning and Holt in second leaving Fesselet a disappointed earlier elimination in 3rd place.
Confident after his heat win Jordie Brown said “I knew it was the toughest heat of the day but I wasn’t fazed at all and knew I could win – These small waves are actually my best conditions – if I’m going to beat these guys these are the type of waves I can do it in. Unlike all the other competitors, I hope it stays small all week because I believe I have an advantage and I’m sure I can go a lot further here and maybe even win!”
Brown was impressive today with some stylish nose rides and clean on face progressive moves to defeat his highly fancied opponents.
The most impressive surfer from the Open Men’s today was Blake Pascoe (Shelley Beach/Central Coast NSW). Pascoe scored an impressive 16.15 out of a possible 20 points to win through his high scoring heat just ahead of an equally impressive Rahn Goddard (WA/Cottesloe). Pascoe’s two wave scores included an excellent 8.4 and a 7.85 while Goddard was close behind with the rounds highest scoring ride of an 8.5 to also progress to round three in second place.
Pascoe commented on his form today saying “ I came here rattled and surfed poorly in round one on Monday because my best mate was seriously injured in a stabbing on the weekend! But I feel better now and more focused and after that heat I’m ready to go a lot further. It’s my third Australian Titles and I’ve never progressed beyond the semi finals and I really want to this year.”
Open Women’s round two heats were also surfed today and Queensland’s Debbie Boggis and Selby Riddle (both Gold Coast) posted comfortable wins to rejoin the top seeded surfers in round three tomorrow along with Emma Wilson (Vic/Torquay).
Day 3 was a day of round two heats across most divisions and the highly seeded, high profile Open and Junior under 18 surfers who progressed through round one had the day off and will join today’s 1st and 2nd placed round two surfers as we approach the serious end of this event in round three tomorrow.
Today’s waves were quite clean but again small with very light winds which also saw the event go into holding pattern early for around 1 hour as a sea fog moved in on the event site. Prospects are good for a southerly pulse in the swell in the coming days and with all the top seeds back in action from tomorrow onwards the business end of this years SOUL Australian Longboard Titles is right upon us and good waves will ensure an amazing conclusion over the coming days.