Round 1 of the 2012 IBA Box Pro complete

posted by Sacha Specker on 28th March 2012

IBA 2012 Box Pro
Event 1 of 8, Mens Grand Slam Series
The Box, Margaret River, Western Australia
March 26 - April 4
ibaworldtour.com

The "Non Elimination" Round 1 of the 2012 IBA Box Pro ran to completion today in rampy 3-4 foot clean waves at the Box. With first and second place leapfrogging the "Sudden Death Elimination" Round 2 directly in to Round 3, half of the 32 man field of competitors will have a second chance to come back with a good result in Round 2, from where first and second will meet up with todays top 16 in Round 3.

Standout performances of today included local West Australians, Jake Stone and Chad Jackson who applied their local knowledge and respectively winning their Round 1 heats.

Drew Innocend (AUS/Sunshine Coast) who had never surfed the box before, but managed to back his show-stopping performance earlier this year at the IBA Pipeline Pro in February by taking out Heat 2 of the day.

Jeff Hubbard (HAW/Honolulu) and Chase O Leary (AUS/Port Macquarie) were neck-and-neck throughout Heat 4, but Hubbards total heat score of 16.41 topped the inform rookies 16.28, Placing Hubbard in 1st and Leary in 2nd.

South Africa's Jared Houston found his true form in Heat 6 of the day, racking up three scores in the excellent range with a series of big clean backflips, accumulating a total heat score of 16.38 out of 20.

The final Heat of Round 1 saw an unstoppable Andrew Lester posted the highest single wave score of the day, a near perfect 9.13 out of a possible 10 points for a long barrel to backflip combination and then backed it up with 8.13 to also earn himself the highest total heat score of the day of 17.26 out of a possible 20.

Surprise upsets of Day 1 included a 3rd place finish by last years event winner and Margaret River local, Ryan Hardy who very narrowly fell to an inform Jacob Romero (HAW/Maui) and Mark McCarthy (ZAF/Richards Bay) and Current World Champion, Pierre-Louis Costes was also forced into Round 2 with an unexpected 4th place in Heat 5.

Round 1 Results