PARTISAN hardly describes the rabid crowd thronging the beach cheering home the final few minutes of Adriano De Souza's win over Taj Burrow at the Billabong Rio Pro.
No-one was safe throughout the event and you knew there would be a Brazilian in the final. Fittingly it was Taj Burrow, the form surfer of the event coming off the back of a shocking result at Bells, up against Adriano the mid-twenties elder statesman of Brazilian surfing. They cheered De Souza's every wave only slightly more than they cheered mistakes from Taj, ending up with the result they craved.
At one point this event threatened to be a total Aussie whitewash before De Souza and Flores shook their tail-feathers, helped in no small part by what many considered generous judging for the home favourite against Owen Wright on the way to the final. Surfing is big news in Brazil and it was like a one man World Cup triumph for the emotional De Souza, who was so overcome by victory he could barely believe the dream result he'd achieved. This win promotes him to world number one, deposing Kelly Slater, a postion never before held by a Brazilian on the Dream Tour.
Adriano is awesome, he's a fantastic surfer and he's ready to be the first.
And about the waves in Brazil, we have spots to compete with international waves, and Rio is one of that. Surfers who are in the top have to surf all conditions and all types of waves.
Adriano surfed good, but Owen got ripped off big time in the semi....world tour contest in that wave is a joke, would have been more interesting if the camera man focused on the girls on the beach...
Heres the truth,Rio was a joke.Owen got ripped off.The judges sucked and Brazil should never be on the WCT.Now Adriano surfs good,has the moves and speed,But he has no style and no balls,same goes for Jadson who has such an ugly awkard style.This is the 'Dream tour' and the elite are doing one floater on crappy 2ft closeouts and getting an 8,Shame on you ASP.Rio was all about advertising for billabong and keeping some of these small wave brazos on tour,What happened too fiji?bring it back....please.If Fiji was held then the ratings right now would be whole lot different.Lets hope for solid swells in all the remaining 2011 events so the real ELITE rise too the top of THE DREAM TOUR.
Yeah mate!!! Long live Australia and America, f...cking legends, you are the best!!! And f...ck anyone who's not blond and speaking english! And it should be an Aussie vs. US tour only, and let's still call it the World Tour! Yeah!!! And don't thank me for being so clear-sighted, too easy mate!!!
its easy to take the moral high ground like you are on this one and say people are being racist and things, but that is totally besides the point. If Adriano had deserved to win, been landing the crazy stuff that Owen Wright, Josh Kerr and Taj had been doing and getting barreled then yeah fair play, but the only thing Adriano did that wasn't going down the line and cutting back once or twice was a floater, and that won him the contest. There's no question over whether or not he deserved to win because of his skin colour or nationality or any of that bullshit, he wasn't the best, thats the issue.
Owen got robbed during the semis, i agree. But Adriano won Taj (Taj who was the most consistent during the whole contest & my favorite) without the controversial floater, you should also re-check all Adriano's other heats, he surfed good and was probably the most focused & hungriest guy out. Slater's the best, he still bowed out in Rd3. The best does not win everytime, that's sport. Can you name just one contest where there was no controversial judging decision? I can't. I stand by my point, i've never read that much blabla when the "controversial" winner was OZ or Yank. People were not talking about OZs and Yanks being style-less or gutless then. Talking about style, do you remember Fabio Gouveia?
Yeh,Dont bring skin colour into this,got bugger too do with that.Just a matter of taste,Compare michel bourez's style too Jadsons.Big difference,But i suppose its personal taste.One thing the zillas do have is passion,Give Dane some of Adrianos passion and you got a new world champ and come on does anyone apart from Brazil want Rio on the WCT.No matter what you say the waves there are not world class.The whole event was a step back in time and alot people around the world thought the whole comp from start too finish was utter turd.
There are two contests in Oz, two in America... so they went for one in Brazil even if the waves are not world-class, that's a notion called equity or fairness...
FAIRNESS,You are clearly clueless,Mate,this is the world tour,'the best surfers in the world'.I'm sure the majority on the CT dont want to surf 2 ft closeouts and i know i would rather watch them tackle heaving barrels at teahupoo too flapping around in shitty shoreys,Snapper and Bells are on the tour because they are fricken good waves.All brazillians whinge about getting a raw deal on tour when its actually its easier for them too qualify as theres heaps of QS comps in Brazil.I don't care where the comps are held as long as the waves are good
The only thing that I agree with you is that maybe WT could run on another spot in Brazil, maybe Saquarema would be much better. Taking Brazil out of WT is not right. I don`t like to watch australians and yanks playing soccer but it doesn't mean that they have to be out of world cup for exemplo. Then the best players in the world are not playing against the best players, agree? Australia and USA go to world cup running a terrible and much easier qualifyng tournament.
Other thing, we have 5 brazilians on tour, the last 3, Heitor has won 3 Primes (anyone here), Alejo had his better results outside and Raoni is there cause he won Sunset contest.Adriano and Jadson won contests world around. So is not true our surfers are there cause they won points in QS events here with bad waves. And everyone can come here and try, simple.
'No-one was safe' at the Rio Pro. Not least the judges. You can't blame them for overscoring local boy Adriano. If they'd given Owen Wright the score he deserved in the semis, there would have been a riot and a lynching. Still, all good for 'bong sales in Brasil.
''helped in no small part by what many considered generous judging for the home favourite against Owen Wright on the way to the final'' ha ha I don't even have to say it! MSW said it for us all......
There has always been controversy in any kind of sport, it's part of the game... It happens everyday in football, it happened before in surfing... Why all this fuss today? Because the winner is Brazilian? When Jadson won last year, I remember reading the same crap. C'mon people, behave please, and don't let nationality or skin colour bias your judgement
Can't blame the event for getting bad waves, although I can't help but feel from the look of the coverage that I've seen of the event De Souza wasn't the stand out competitor, Josh Kerr, Owen Wright and Martinez were all landing all their crazy high performance moves and making barrels whereas in comparison Adriano just seemed a bit boring, doing some cutbacks. Can't help but feel that if there hadn't been thousands of Brazillians standing on the beach the outcome may have been very different.
His name is Greg Weatherall mate and if you'd taken some time to watch his previous stints, you'd notice he's been improving in heaps and bounds. Keep up the good work Greg, can't wait to see ya in J-Bay!!
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