Barbadian Josh Burke has produced one of his best performances in his third full-time year on the World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) men’s tour, placing third at the Florida Pro 1500 in Sebastian Inlet.
The 20-year-old Burke started his five-round campaign in the seeded second round making it known he was there with a purpose after losing his close friend, Zander Venezia, last year, posting a 6.00 & 6.50 to take his first heat win against former United States junior team member 21-year-old Kevin Shultz.
In Round 3, Burke came up against Tyler Gunter of the United States, Jackson Butler of Australia and Manuel Selman of Chile, posting a 5.33 and an excellent 8.27 for a total of 13.60 leaving the three other competitors fighting for the second-place advancement position.
In the first heat of Round 4, which attracted four entrants with two surfers advancing, Burke and Evan Geiselman of the United States advanced ahead of Tomas King of Costa Rica and Giorgio Gomez of the United States.
In his quarter-final, Burke caught eight waves with five of them in the good to excellent range to reach the semi-finals to set up another showdown with Geiselman, a rematch of the Barbados Surf Pro 3000 event held at Drill Hall beach last April when Burke eliminated the American.
The Florida Pro man-on-man semi-final exceeded expectations with both surfers performing outstandingly with heat positioning flipping five times, towards the end of the 30-minute heat.
Burke was holding on to wave scores of 8.50 and 6.80 (15.30) while Geiselman, with 7.33 and 6.83 (14.16), required 8.10 for the win.
With 60 seconds remaining, Burke increased his score, dropping a seven-point wave ride to bring his total to 15.50.
Geiselman then requiresd a 8.30 with 18 seconds remaining and Burke exiting the water.
Geiselman collected a set wave to execute a vertical off the lip into a top turn to finish with another turn on the close-out to post an excellent 8.77 wave score eliminating Burke. The American went on to secure his third qualifying series win. (PR/MK)