TAJ BURROW won his second consecutive Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Breaka Burleigh Pro held in wind affected good high performance 1m (3 feet) surf at Burleigh Heads today.
The fast, talented number 1 seed and world number 3 rated surfer displayed a full repertoire of moves including his renown aerial talents to seal today’s win.
Burrow lead for most of the 40 minute final, building his scores throughout and closing on a 7.57 and 7.9 for a final two wave tally of 15.47 but was challenged late when Joel Parkinson scored the highest single wave of the final, an excellent 8.23.
It left Parkinson chasing a 7.24 to take the win but he was unable to find a second decent wave in the final minutes.
“Great to win back-to-back here at Burleigh – Parko came hard at me near the end which made for a tight final and it’s always good to win a quality final like that – I certainly hope history can repeat and I follow up next week at the Quiksilver Pro – I’ll take that for sure,” said Burrow.
“Burleigh’s an exciting wave, even small like today, its high performance and you can really surf these waves and score – it’s been another amazing event.”
Parkinson was satisfied with his result today but also disappointed not to take the win.
“It has been a great warm up for all of us but you know, when you’re in a final with guys like Taj and Bede you really want to win and I was out there chasing the win – I needed a decent final ride and it didn’t happen but all up, a great event, Taj was always going to be the man to beat in conditions like that,” said Parkinson.
Bede Durbidge placed third in today’s final and all three top placed surfers look ready for the opening event to the 2011 ASP World Title Tour – next week’s Quiksilver Pro.
Once again, spectators relished the return of professional surfing to its spiritual home of Burleigh Heads and organisers are expecting an even bigger 2012.
Final: Taj Burrow (15.47) 1, Joel Parkinson (12.96) 2, Bede Durbidge (12.20) 3, Jayke Sharpe (11.73) 4
Breaka Burleigh Pro Semi-final Results:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow 1, Jayke Sharpe 2, Tiago Pires (Portugal) 3, Jay Thompson 4
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson 1, Julian Wilson, Thomas Woods, Bede Durbidge,
