The Quiksilver Pro Portugal 2011 was dominated by 22 year old Julian Wilson. The young ASP top 44 surfer from the sunshine coast in Australia was in absolutely top form from start to finish.
JW throwing some shapes
In round one, Julian got a combined score of 17.60 defeating Gony Zubizarreta, Joan Duru and Medi Veminardi in an impressive heat. He then went through to round 3, once again defeating Joan Duru. He then went on to defeat Caio Ibelli by more then ten points. The Quarters saw Julian defeat the very talented Kiwi Jay Quinn by only just over 4 points.
The semi final is where Wilson came alive and was throwing massive turns with gallons of spray as well as long floaters. It was a closely fought heat with young Brazillian Miguel Pupo giving him a good run for his money with some epic backhand snaps. Wilson was once again triumphant with a 6 point victory.
By the time the final came round, everyone watching knew that Wilson had this one in the bag. He owned the heat with a 9.57 and a 9.8. This event was just a showcase of Julian’s amazing talents.
He had this to say after the final : “I am so happy. To put in the hard yards for this one has been unreal. I have had a mediocre start to my year and I have been working so hard to make some heats. I came off four weeks in Brazil without a strong result and I went home to reassess and do a bit of training and got really motivated. I flew over here by myself with just the goal of winning and stayed focused so it worked out.”
he then added “I felt good right from the start when in my first heat of the contest I had a 9 and an 8 and I felt comfortable out there. I never went too much out of my comfort zone and just surfed strong and made sure I was winning heats because I wanted to win this event. I was going to do whatever it took to do it.”
Miguel Pupo
Gabriel Medina (BRA) finished in second and added another great result to his season after his victory in the ASP PRIME in Brazil. If Wilson was not in this contest I’m sure it would have been a very closely fought final between to fine Brazilians Miguel Pupo and Gabriel Medina. Pupo was also in very impressive form through out the contest.
It was a great event with good 4 -5 foot waves all the way through and a very good example of the waves in Europe and the talent that is widely spread across the globe.
Its an exciting time to be following surfing. The talent is getting better and better across the board with the likes of Julian Wilson scoring 8 and 9′s in more or less every heat. World Tour watch out i think this group of youngsters are set to light the ASP up!
The final results were like this :
Quiksilver Pro Portugal Final
1 – Julian Wilson (AUS) 19.37
2 – Gabriel Medina (BRA) 12.83
Quiksilver Pro Portugal Semifinal Results
SF 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.00 Def. John John Florence (HAW) 13.67
SF 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 17.04 Def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 11.37
Quiksilver Pro Portugal Quarterfinal Results
QF 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 18.37 Def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 12.33
QF 2: John John Florence (HAW) 18.03 Def. Pat Gudauskas (USA) 12.43
QF 3: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 13.84 Def. Dion Atkinson (AUS) 10.17
QF 4: Julian Wilson (AUS) 14.26 Def. Jay Quinn (NZL) 9.40
The next events up are the ASP world Tour in Jeffery’s Bay on the 14th July and the nike 6.0 Prime event being one of my favorites the Nike US Open of Surfing.
