Local Surfers shine at Rip Curl Pro Search
All three area surfers were victorious in the first round of the Rip Curl Pro Search “somewhere” in Indonesia.
Indialantic’s Damien Hobgood got things started, winning Heat No. 2 with a score of 10.90. His brother, C.J., was next in the fourth heat and got the same result, edging Fredrick Patacchia by .51 to advance to the third round. C.J. caught a huge wave with 2:24 to go in the heat, scoring a 9.17 for the win.
It took Cocoa Beach’s Kelly Slater a few minutes to get going, but once he did, there was no stopping him. The eight-time champion scored a perfect 10 on his third wave of the event with a double barrel on a solid eight-foot set. The current ratings leader followed that with a 9.17 later in the round to dust his competitors and advance to the third round.
“This is my first time ever surfing out here, ’somewhere,’ ” Slater said in a release. “I’ve seen it a bit on a few videos and I watched it this morning a little bit on the high tide, but my heat was my first session out there. The wave is so good and you can just sit as deep as you want on the foam ball and it seems to let you out no matter what.”
All three have advanced to Round 3.