Michel Bourez overcomes Tomas Hermes to reach Round 3 of Billabong Rio Pro

French Polynesia’s Michel Bourez advanced through into the third round of Billabong Rio Pro, the third of ten

stops on the 2012 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Series, after getting the better of Brazil

’s Tomas Hermes in the second heat of Round 2 that went down at the primary event site of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, May 14.

The outcome of the heat served to carry Bourez into the next round of the competition while eliminating Hermes from

the contention for the event title.

“I was waiting for that one for so long,” Bourez said. “I got my first wave at the beginning and got my second

one at the last second. I love these conditions, it fits my surfing. I like to wait for the right ones and get the

big barrels. Sometimes you have to go big and do big turns, but I expect to find the barrels today.”

The four-to-six foot barrels on offer at the main event site promised a heavy dose of memorable action as the world

’s best surfers got braced themselves to take each other on in man-on-man battles for survival. The previous round

of the event had gone down in tricky surfing conditions at the alternative venue of Arpoador on Wednesday, but

returned back to Barra da Tijuca on Monday.

The second heat of Round 2 saw Bourez and Hermes take each other on to try and get hold of the Round 3 spot. Both

the surfers had struggled with their rhythm during their Round 1 heat, thus getting relegated to the elimination

round. They now faced a do-or-die situation with very little room for error.

As the man-on-man bout got underway, the 26-year-old Bourez locked his first business-wave in the opening minutes to

post a 6.43 on the score-board. He then remained patient, waiting for a juicy right-hander to appear before making

another charge. His wait eventually came to an end as a barrel appeared in the dying minutes of the heat to unload a

series of big turns for an 8.67, moving to a resultant heat-total of 15.10 points.

Hermes, the event wildcard entry, put on a pretty impressive performance as well, collecting a 6.83 and 5.83-point

ride for a heat-total of 12.66 points. However, his efforts turned out to be inadequate, thus getting forced to

concede the Round 3 spot to Bourez.