BILLABONG RIO PRO 2011 - the first in Rio
2011
The WCT was transferred to Rio de Janeiro -Barra da Tijuca and Arpoador beaches in 2011 and I came to the most important surfing event in Brazil. I took a flight by Azul from Porto Alegre RS to Rio de Janeiro, Santos Dumont Airport. However that time I was a quite lost in this huge city where the beaches are far away from downtown. The championship was "off" because there were not waves ; the sea was flat with no waves. But I took many pictures from the event structure in Barra da Tijuca Posto 4 close to Sheraton Hotel and Arpoador Beach. I also took pictures of some top surfers as Bede Durbidge, Owen Whight, Jean da Silva, Leandro Bastos, Simão Romão, Igor Morais e Adriano de Souza, who was the champion of Billabong Rio Pro 2011. The women's event was "on" and Carissa Moore was the champion. I saw the trials for the competition, the weather changed and started raining directly so I decided to come back do Porto Alegre and follow the championship by Internet on live, and prepare better my next trip for this surfing competition in 2012.
BILLABONG RIO PRO 2012 the best
May 9th 2012 - Wednesday
I bought my airplane ticket and a new cell with camera Nokia 500 with 5Mb resolution and made a banner of my blog surfworldtour.blogspot.com to place in the Barra da Tijuca and Arpoador beaches. This championship I stayed in a simple hotel in Rio de Janeiro downtown close to Tiradentes Square.I left POA on May 9th at 6:46 am to Sao Paulo Unfortunately my plane connection delayed in Guarulhos SP by operational problems and I landed in Rio de Janeiro just in afternoon so I could not go to the first day of competition in Arpoador beach. Unfortunately I missed the Men's and Women's Round 1 in Arpoador Beach.
Guarulhos SP
May 9th - Arpoador beach -The Championship is "on"
Waves - two-to four foot(1.0 metre)
Men's - Round 1
Women's-Round 1
May 10th Arpoador beach
Waves - One-to-three foot(.5 metre)
Men's - Lay Day
Women's- Round 2
May 10th Thursday
I woke up early at 5.00 am and caught the bus 308 in Presidente Vargas Avenue to Barra da Tijuca and got off in America Avenue and I walked way to posto 4 but I became frustrated because threre was not event in post 4 close to Sheraton Hotel as in last year 2011. So I asked some guys and they told me the event was in Posto 2 -Postinho in front of "Pepe Point" and SK8. So I walked there so fast and fortunatelly I saw the Billabong Rio Pro 2012 structure, but the event was "day off" in Barra da Tijuca. Soon the top surfer Alejo Muniz(BRA) showed up to free surfing session and told me the event was "on" in Arpoador beach just for the girls. I took some pictures and caught a bus to Arpoador beach. The bus was to Copacabana beach but I got off in Nossa Senhora de Copacabana Avenue close to Arpoador. The Women's competition was "on" in Round 2. I placed my banner on the shore and took some pictures. It was nice however at my opinion the waterpatrol should ask to some people get away off the competition area because some guys were so close to the surfers. There were not good waves so competition stopped.
May 11th Friday - No competition
Waves - One-to-two foot (.5 metre)
Men's - Lay day
Women's - Lay day
I woke up at 5.00 am again took a shower and got my stuff, camera, banner , sunglasses and left the hotel. This time I got the bus 309 to Barra da Tijuca and got off close to postinho "Pepe point" but unfortunatelly the sea was flat . There were not waves and I asked the event coordinator and he told me the day would be off for Men's and Women's competition.
I took more pictures and decided to visit Recreio do Bandeirantes beach and the famous "Prainha" beach. I took the bus 316 and got off in Recreio beach. Recreio is far away and I felt was cooler than Barra. There I took some pictures of Pontal and Macumba beaches. And after I decided to go walking to "Prainha" beach because there was no bus to get there. I took half an hour to get there walking but it's worth a lot. Prainha has nice waves and is so beautiful. There is a national park there. Gabriel Medina(BRA) and Michael Ho(HAW) and other top surfers were in a free surfing session. I knew two girls from São Sebastião (SP) that knew Gabriel Medina(BRA) from Maresias beach. I gave my blog's name to them and they said that will post some photos on my blog. They told me Gabriel Medina free surf will take more than two hours on water. So I decided go back walking to Recreio dos Bandeirantes beach. After almost one hour walking and taking pictures I arrived in Recreio beach, drunk a mineral water and rested for a while.Than I caught the bus 315 that went by "linha Amarela" and took a long time, but everything was ok.
Recreio do Bandeirantes beach
Prainha beach
May 12th Saturday
Waves - One-to-two foot (.5 metre)
Women's - Round 3 Quarterfinals
Men's - Lay Day
I woke up early again. I caught the bus 309 and arrived in the event .The competition in Barra da Tijuca was just for the girls.The competition was in round 3 and finished in Quarterfinals. The classified to semifinals were:
Coco Ho (HAW)
Alessa Quizon(HAW)
Sally Fitzgibbons(AUS)
Carissa Moore(AUS)
May 13th - Sunday
Waves -One-to-three foot (.5 metre)
Women's - Final
I woke up later and took the bus 309 to Barra da Tijuca to follow up the women's semifinals and final. I took a nice picture of Coco Ho(HAW) with Derek Ho(HAW) before the final. I think that both top surfers had a nice performance but Sally always happy and simpatic surfed very well and the fans loved her. The women's competition was finished.
Final
Sally Fitzgibbons(AUS) 14.10 x 14.03 Coco Ho(HAW)
Sally Fitzgibbons(AUS) Champion Billabong Rio Pro 2012
May 14th - Monday
Waves - Four-to-six(1.5 to 2.0 metre)
Men's - Round 2 completed
Round 3 heat 2
I woke up early and caught the bus to Barra da Tijuca but unfortunatelly I missed the first heat of Round 2 between two Brazilian top surfers.
Gabriel Medina(BRA)7.17 x 10.83 Peterson Crisanto(BRA)
The weather changed a lot and started raining and windy with big waves. In the heat 2 of the Round 3 the rain and wind became strong, kind of a storm so the event coordination decided and announced to stop the competition in the second heat of round 3.
May 15th - Tuesday
Waves - Two-to-four( 1.0 metre)
Men's - Round 3 - from heat 3
Round 4
Round 5
I woke up early again and caught the bus 309 to Barra da Tijuca. This day the waves were around 1.0 metre. The competition were from heat 3 Round 3 , Round 4 and Round 5. So the classified to quarterfinals were:
Tiago Pires(POR)
Joel Parkinson(AUS)
Alejo Muniz(BRA)
Mick Fanning(AUS)
John John Florence(HAW)
Julian Wilson(AUS)
Josh Ker(AUS) and
Adriano de Souza(BRA)
May 16th - Wednesday
Waves- three-to-four foot(
Men's - Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final Joel Parkinson(AUS) 11.44 x 16.37 John John Florence(HAW)
I woke up early again and caught the bus to Barrra to the last day of competition.I would like to thank all guys of Billabong, coordinators, waterpatrol for the attention and nice treatment with the people that work in the event, and with the funs of the most beautiful sport "the surf".
I agree with Billabong that the Posto 2 - Postinho "Pepe" point is a better place to the most important surfing event in Brazil.
John John Florence(HAW) champion Billabong Rio Pro 2012
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