Margaret River Competition Has its Winner - Michel Bourez
Michael Bourez, known among surfers as "The Spartan" for his strong attitude and focus took the gold at the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro. Tahitian born, known for his powerful regular foot, emerged on the scene in 2007 as a wildcard in the Quicksilver Pro France where he even took Kelly Slater out. Michael enjoys riding barrels the most but does not fear any wave. Many say that he won't last very long on the ASP tour as many of his fellow island-dwellers, who eventually give up riding wretched waves the competition business unfortunately sometimes requires. We hope that Michael won't follow in their footsteps and will continue to amaze us with his powerful skills and style further down the line.
The French-spaeking Tahitian powerhouse secured his first ever WCT win by defeating Josh Kerr in an exciting Final on super Sunday. Bourez previously dispatched 11-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater in the Semifinals and Nat Young in the Quarterfinals. The victory places Bourez at No. 4 in the ASP World Rankings. Both Bourez and Kerr took to the water in the Final searching for their first career ASP WCT wins. The bout got off to a slow start, but Bourez eventually lit up two consecutive waves scoring 6.33 and 7.57 with his patented forehand power. Kerr answered back, delivering a full-fledged attack on the Main Break rights, but Bourez continued to build momentum, adding an 8.33 to his score line to secure victory at the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro.
“It’s such a good feeling to win, it’s a dream come true. Making the Final here and surfing against Josh Kerr was wonderful. It was such a tough Heat out there because you don’t know what to expect from Kerr. The Semifinal was like a Final. Surfing against Kelly Slater was a tough one so I had to really push my level up. That 9.37 I got came out of nowhere. Kelly’s still the greatest surfer ever so to beat him was wonderful. It’s a long year and there are still nine contests to go so I need to focus on the next one and relax. I can’t wait for Bells (Beach) now, I have always liked that wave,” said Michel Bourez
The legendary freestyle windsurfing event on lake Neusiedl is back! Since 1998 the best Freestyle Windsurfers in the world travel down to the Austrian water sports capital to compete in the European Freestyle Pro Tour. This edition, taking place
between the 27th of April and the 1st of May, will be…
“I just tried to relax going into the Final. It was a rough Heat but I wanted to put a show on for everyone. It hurt last year getting runner up and it hurts even more this year. I made a few errors at the start of the Heat by falling on the inside and I definitely didn’t chose the right waves. The Heat came down to strategy and things didn’t go my way. It’s pretty annoying to make the Final and surf really badly. I’m stoked with the result though, the West has been good to me and I enjoy being here. I’m happy we have a WCT event here and it was great to surf at The Box. I’m going to take the year event by event and I’m excited to move on to the next one,” said Josh Kerr
The next stop on the 2014 Samsung Galaxy ASP World Championship Tour will be the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach from April 16 - 27, 2014
Check Michael's style from the final run on the Main Break at the video below
Source: Redbull and their media pool. All images are courtesy of Red Bull.
The international top event this year is all about the new Olympic windsurfing class, foil windsurfing and wingfoiling. More than 300 world’s best windsurfers from 42 nations will compete in various foil classes on Lake Silvaplana.
The first of 16 GKA Kite World Tour events begins in Cape Verde this month.
Ten islands make up the archipelago of Cabo Verde which lies two hours south of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, due to their geographical location the islands are frequented with pumping swell and trade winds.
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