Ricardo's 8.17 point air reverse - Image Hurley

Richard Christie has continued his crusade at the Nike US Open currently being held at Huntington Beach, Californiamoving through to the round of twelve surfers in spectacular fashion.

Christie overpowered Hawaiian Joel Centeio in his head-to-head match up today after taking a very patient approach to the inconsistent 1.0m waves.  In a wave-starved 30 minutes, neither surfer caught any wave of consequence for the first 25 minutes.

In Christie’s case, he did not even get a wave until ten minutes remained in the heat.  Even then, he was behind the eight ball with his first two rides amassing 1.77 and 2.87.  Centeio did not fear much better but held a slender lead until the final exchange between the two surfers with less than two minutes remaining.

Christie took the first wave under his own priority and rode a bowly righthander finishing with a big frontside air reverse.  Centeio was on the wave behind and also surfed it through to the beach but in a much more conservative manner.  The result was that Christie posted an outstanding 8.17 point ride while Centeio scored 5.17 and the heat was over.

Christie’s next match up is in the non elimination round.  The heat comprises ASP World Tour surfer Dusty Payne from Hawaii and local young Californian hot shot Evan Geiselman.  A win sees Christie shoot into the Quarterfinals while a second or third placing sees him head into Round 5. 

Christie is hitting a rich vein of form but nothing short of a finals berth at this event will see him ascend the ranks enough to break into the esteemed ASP World Tour which caters for the top 34 surfers in the world.  Christie needs to climb at least twelve places from his current rank of 46^th for a chance at qualification.

The Nike US Open of Surfing is an ASP Prime event in which the winner walks away with $100,000 in cash – the biggest pay day in world surfing.