Luke Turgeon- Thanks to Gold Coast Bulletin
May 15th, 2009
BURLEIGH Heads surfer Jay `Bottle’ Thompson yesterday booked a Teahupoo showdown with former world champion CJ Hobgood after powering through to Round 3 of the Billabong Pro surfing contest in Tahiti.
Thompson posted the equal highest-scoring single wave of the day to eliminate dangerous young gun Jeremy Flores in Round 2, making the most of testing conditions at the usually perfect left-hand Teahupoo reef break.
Contest organisers only managed to run the final two heats of Round 1 and the first six heats of Round 2 before the competition was put on hold.
Thompson was the day’s standout, securing an 8.83 out of a possible 10, for an excellent backhand barrel on his way to defeating Flores 13.83 to 11.37.
“Jeremy (Flores) can be really, really dangerous out here,” said Thompson. “He’s spent a lot of time in Tahiti and knows the wave really well so I wasn’t taking him lightly at all.
“It’s pretty difficult out there, but you can still pick a couple in between the wind and rain.
“Fortunately for me, that one at the end really opened up and allowed me to get through.”
Hobgood, the 2001 world champ and 2004 winner at the Billabong Pro Tahiti, annihilated Sydney surfer Phillip MacDonald 14.50 to 0.77.
Coolangatta surfer Josh Kerr caused the upset of the day by eliminating current world No.3 Fred Patacchia in the dying moments of their Round 2 bout.
After sitting with priority for over 10 minutes, Kerr steamrolled through a backhand double barrel to get the highest single-wave score of the day, an 8.83 out of a possible 10, to equal fellow Gold Coaster Thompson and surf away with the win.