Yago Dora Lands Perfect 10 to Reach World Surf League Semi-Finals
Yago Dora pushed through to the world surf league New Zealand Pro semi-finals on Sunday by landing a perfect 10 for a full rotation aerial at Manu Bay. The reigning world champion needed a 9.50 with little more than three minutes left, then flipped the heat with one wave and changed the men’s bracket.
Dora Sends Houshmand Home
Dora defeated Cole Houshmand in the quarter-final heat after building speed and throwing an aerial that featured about two seconds of hang time. Five judges rewarded it with the maximum score, and the ride gave him the exact lift he needed to move on.
“I feel so good,” Dora said after the heat. He then described the wave in detail: “I was just praying for an opportunity, I just needed a wave to really go for it. The last wave when I popped up, I saw that pocket forming and I said ‘OK, this is it, I’m going to throw it’. I went all the way to the flats and I stuck it perfectly.”
Ferreira And Colapinto Advance
Dora’s reward is a semi-final showdown with Italo Ferreira, who beat Miguel Pupo and added his own memorable aerial to the day’s quarter-final action. On the other side of the men’s draw, Australian Morgan Cibilic booked his place with a last-gasp ride that left him needing 7.90 and getting an 8.0 with three seconds remaining.
Cibilic was blunt about how close his heat felt before that final wave. “Oh my God so good, nothing was going my way,” he said. “I was having an absolute shocker before that, and made a fair few major errors. It was the wave I was searching for the whole heat. Once I stood up, the eyes rolled back and just went to work and got the job done.”
Moore And Lindblad Set Finals
Cibilic will meet Griffin Colapinto, who defeated Filipe Toledo, in the other men’s semi-final. The women’s side also moved forward Sunday, with Sawyer Lindblad beating Alyssa Spencer by 0.03 and Carissa Moore scoring 19.00 to beat Bettylou Sakura Johnson, who finished on 13.70.
That Sunday sequence leaves the women’s final and the rest of the men’s competition for Monday. Dora’s perfect 10 was the swing point of the day, but the bracket still has two men’s semi-finals and one women’s final to settle at the New Zealand Pro.
