ZARAUTZ, Basque Country – Spain (Wednesday, August 29, 2012) – Day two of the San Miguel Pro Zarautz pres. by Euskaltel unfolded today in 1-2Ft waves and completed the first round of competition left unfinished yesterday. Action kicked off at 10am this morning but unfortunately conditions didn’t improve as expected with the incoming tide and the San Miguel Pro Zarautz was stopped by lunch time.
Beyrick De Vries (ZAF) 19, was the standout performer in the remaining seven heats of round one surfed today, and had a very close fought battle which he won over rising Portuguese Junior surfer Frederico Morais. De Vries found the best opportunities in a complicated line-up and imposed his style and skills to score a combined heat total of 14.43 out of 20.
“The waves were really small,” De Vries stated. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a surfing contest really you just had to get the best waves, anybody who got the two best waves was going to win today. I managed to catch a couple of fun ones and do two good snaps, and on my 7.83 I did like a little backhand tailslide to mix it up, I was happy I could get this pretty big score for today and I felt pretty confident being first. In the end Frederico got an 8 something, almost the score he needed but yeah I’m stoked to get through.”
With only small and inconsistent swell on offer throughout this morning, wave selection and tactics played an important role in deciding today’s qualifiers. Despite visiting the Basque Country for the first time in his young career, De Vries showed a sharp gameplan and the hours spent in the water figuring out the spot seemed to have paid off today.
“I just try to get a lot of practice time, even if you’re not getting waves, just sitting out there, it’s good to see where the waves are coming through, learn the banks on every tide..” De Vries said. “Especially in Europe where the tides are so big, it changes all the time and every heat is different. This is my first time here and it’s so good I just love the place, there are so many good looking people and everyone is really friendly I’m loving it.”
Frederico Morais (PRT) 20, one of five qualifiers who will represent Europe at the World Junior Championships next October in Indonesia, performed well today placing second to Beyrick De Vries and netting the second highest heat total of the day as well as the highest single wave score of the event so far, an excellent 8.03 out of 10.
“My first heat went pretty good !” Morais said. “I was watching the couple heats before mine and it looked really hard to surf, but I suppose I got lucky and found a couple of really fun waves, I’m stoked ! I know Beyrick a little, he’s a really good surfer and a nice guy so it was fun to have him in my heat for the first time and I enjoyed a good battle against him !”
Following an excellent Junior season where he surfed four times in the finals out of five events, Morais started his European Star Tour campaign in Lacanau with a convincing performance and will be looking to confirm in Zarautz against older and more experienced competitors. Closely trained and followed by a new coach, Morais sees his hard work starting to pay and is looking forward to surf more heats in the Basque Country.
“This year I’m feeling more confident than my two previous appearances in Zarautz,” Morais commented. “I want to get a good result here for the first time, I had some good heats in the Juniors and in Lacanau main event so I come here focused. I’ve been working hard with Richard Marsh my new coach, he’s an experienced competitor and has been helping me figuring out the line-ups and giving me technical insights into how to improve my surfing, it’s the first time I have a full time support and I see some good changes in my surfing specially in consistency at events so I’m really stoked.”
Cahill Bell-Warren (AUS) 23, won the last heat of the day before the contest was put on-hold due to the full tide and eventually called off at 3.30pm this afternoon. Experiencing the most difficult conditions today, Bell-Warren still managed to find the two scores needed to advance to the second round of the San Miguel Pro Zarautz.
“The waves were pretty slow,” Bell Warren said. “I thought with the tide coming in it would get a lot bigger and better but it actually got worse. Fortunately for me I got some nice little runners and made it through. I feel good, I like Zarautz it’s such a beautiful town. So far in this European leg of the Star tour this is the most beautiful place I’ve been, I’m staying with a bunch of good friends so I’m feeling really comfortable and I like it here ! I’m not so focused on the rankings at the moment, I really just want to go out there, perform and make some heats. If I can do that I suppose the rankings will come later. I’ve done a few years on the Star Tour but I’ve had a lot of injuries and I’ve never been able to come to Europe, always seemed to be hurt at the time, so I’m really happy to be here !”
After completing the remaining seven heats of the opening round at the San Miguel Pro Zarautz, event officials decided to put a halt to it due to increasingly difficult conditions for the surfers. The second round will see Top Seeds come into play including Glenn Hall (IRE), Filipe Toledo (BRA), Nat Young (USA) and Jean Da Silva (BRA) amongst others. These four front-runners in the qualifying race towards the 2013 ASP World Championship Tour should have the opportunity to surf a more consistent and bigger swell when competition resumes tomorrow.
“With the incoming tide this morning, we were thinking it was going to get better but it really didn’t show and it was pretty average to borderline to keep running so we put the contest on hold.” Iain Buchanan, ASP Europe’s Head Judge stated. “The tide filled in and the swell didn’t show any sign of increase today. The forecast is looking good for the next two days maybe with a bit more wind but definitely with more size. There are three or four guys coming from Virginia, all right in the qualifying zone and this event is super important for them, so we want to give them the best possible waves as well as make it all fair for everyone else. Tomorrow’s going to be solid, and the guys can really show what they can do, I’ve talked to the surfers and that’s what everyone wants to do, wait for the size.”
The next call tomorrow is set to 8:30am tomorrow for a possible early start of the second round of competition.
The ASP 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz presented by Euskaltel is scheduled from August 28 – September 2, 2012 in Zarautz, Basque Country – SPAIN. For all results, photos, video highlights, press releases log on to zarautz.aspeurope.com.
The San Miguel Pro Zarautz pres. by Euskaltel is made possible with the support of the following event partners: Euskaltel, Turismo Zarautz, Gipuzkoa, Euskadi, Coca-Cola, New Era, Gutizi, Haker, Le Diario Vasco, Surflimit, Lamono, Kutxa, GSF, EHSF, Alaia, Doblehilo, Bar Pagoeta, Iturrieta Berri, 3Sesenta, Margruesa.com amongst others.
UPCOMING SAN MIGUEL PRO ZARAUTZ ROUND OF 96 MATCHUPS:
Heat 1: Glenn Hall (IRL), Ander Ugarte (EUK), Thomas Woods (AUS), Daniel Karren (AUS) Heat 2: Lincoln Taylor (AUS), Billy Stairmand (NZL), Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR), Ricardo Ferreira (BRA) Heat 3: Joan Duru (FRA), Gony Zubizarreta (ESP), Alexandre Chacon (BRA), Hugo Dubosc (REU) Heat 4: Jano Belo (BRA), Kiron Jabour (HAW), Soli Bailey (AUS), Caio Ibelli (BRA) Heat 5: Matt Wilkinson (AUS), Bernardo Miranda (BRA), Davey Cathels (AUS), Cory Arrambide (USA) Heat 6: Evan Geiselman (USA), Aritz Aranburu (EUK), Jerome Forrest (AUS), Matt Pagan (USA) Heat 7: Hizunome Bettero (BRA), Nathan Hedge (AUS), Andre Silva (BRA), Teale Vanner (AUS Heat 8: Granger Larsen (HAW), Luke Davis (USA), Ruda Carvalho (BRA), Garrett Parkes (AUS) Heat 9: Brian Toth (PRI), Shaun Joubert ZAF), Messias Felix (BRA), Txaber Trojaola (EUK) Heat 10: Jack Freestone (AUS), Marc Lacomare (FRA), Jeffrey Lukasik (USA), Vicente Romero (ESP) Heat 11: Mitch Crews (AUS), Thiago Camarao (BRA), Leandro Usuna (ARG), Guillermo Satt (CHL) Heat 12: Sebastian Zietz (HAW), Leonardo Neves (BRA), Teppei Tajima (JPN), Maxime Huscenot (FRA) Heat 13: Nat Young (USA), Medi Veminardi (REU), Marlon Lipke (DEU), Ty Watson (AUS) Heat 14: Jonathan Gonzalez (CNY), Matt Banting (AUS), Magnum Martinez (USA), Alan Jhones (BRA) Heat 15: Tomas Hermes (BRA), Dale Staples (ZAF), Haley Batista (BRA), Adrien Valero (FRA) Heat 16: Jean Da Silva (BRA), Yuri Sodre (BRA), Marcelo Rodriguez (ARG), Marco Fernandez (BRA) Heat 17: Nathan Yeomans (USA), Vincent Duvignac (FRA), Rafael Pereira (VEN), Santiago Muniz (ARG) Heat 18: Dion Atkinson (AUS), Perth Standlick (AUS), Vasco Ribeiro (PRT), Alan Donato (BRA) Heat 19: Romain Cloitre (FRA), Peterson Crisanto (BRA), Manuel Selman (CHL), Ricardo Christie (NZL) Heat 20: William Cardoso (BRA), Adrien Toyon (FRA), Luel Felipe (BRA), Lucas Santamaria (ARG) Heat 21: Alex Ribeiro (BRA), Flavio Nakagima (BRA), Beyrick De Vries (ZAF), Carlos Munoz (CRI) Heat 22: Keanu Asing (HAW), Hodei Collazo (EUK), Frederico Morais (PRT), Jordin Watson (AUS) Heat 23: Jay Thompson (AUS), Stu Kennedy (AUS), Simao Romao (BRA), Sidney Guimaraes (BRA) Heat 24: Filipe Toledo (BRA), Imanol Yeregi (EUK), Norman Landa (EUK), Cahill Bell-Warren (AUS)
SAN MIGUEL PRO ZARAUTZ ROUND OF 144 RESULTS:
Heat 18: Alan Donato (BRA) 12.27, Santiago Muniz (ARG) 11.77, Pierre-Valentin Laborde (FRA) 7.97, Remi Petersen (NLD) 5.67 Heat 19: Manuel Selman (CHL) 13.56, Luel Felipe (BRA) 9.13, Joao Guedes (PRT) 7.53, Jatyr Berasaluce (EUK) 5.80 Heat 20: Lucas Santamaria (ARG) 8.90, Ricardo Christie (NZL) 8.60, Robertson Goncalves (PRT) 4.83, Cheyne Willis (HAW) 2.86 Heat 21: Beyrick De Vries (ZAF) 14.43, Frederico Morais (PRT) 14.20, Jules Thomet (FRA) 12.83, Ethan Egiguren (EUK) 7.27 Heat 22: Jordin Watson (AUS) 13.17, Carlos Munoz (CRI) 10.94, Jayce Robinson (GBR) 10.40, Rudy Marechal (FRA) 8.60 Heat 23: Simao Romao (BRA) 10.97, Norman Landa (EUK) 9.40, Miguel Tudela (PER) 8.00, Enrique Ariitu (PYF) 4.30 Heat 24: Cahill Bell-Warren (AUS) 11.60, Sidney Guimaraes (BRA) 9.67, Victor Pinango De Nobrega (ITA) 4.83, Chris Foster (HAW) 3.76
