ASP 3-star Protest Vendee Pro kicks-off with Round 1 in tricky conditions at Les Dunes
The opening round of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 3-Star Protest Vendee Pro saw French Polynesia’s Alain Riou and Great Britain’s Harry Timson claim top honours in their respective Round 1 (Round of 112) heats that went down at the alternative
event-site of Les Dunes in Brétignolles-sur-Mer, France, to advance through into the second round (Round of 96) on Thursday, April 19.
France’s Arthur Berteloot, Julien Remi, Tom Bellevergue and Benoit Potier, along with Venezuela’s Jean s******r and France’s Didier Piter also advanced through into the second round.
The choppy four-to-five foot waves breaking at the secondary site put the skills and experience of both the local as well as international surfers to test, making them work hard during the course of the heat to post a decent score on the score-bard.
The first heat saw Riou adjust exceptionally well to the demanding surfing conditions and consequently put on an impressive performance. Locking a couple of relatively juicy waves, the French Polynesian surfer finished with a heat-total of 13.33 points to
emerge triumphant.
His rival Berteloot was forced to settle for runner-up place with a heat-total of 8.16 points, accompanying the winner into the next round. France’s Renaud Masson was unable to make much of an impact during the three-man battle. Finishing with a heat-total
of 2.90 points, he finished third and thus got eliminated from the competition.
The result of the second heat came out without any contest taking place, sending both Remi and s******r into the next round.
Bellevergue and Piter also advanced to Round 2 after America’s Britton Galland failed to show up for the triple-threat battle in the third heat.
English surfer Timson managed to prevail in the fourth heat that turned out to be a low-scoring contest with all three surfers in the battle struggling to get their hands on a scoring opportunity. The sea was not offering much for them to work with, forcing
them to settle for modest wave-scores.
Timson remained the highest scorer in the heat with a two-wave total of 8.57 points, where Potier finished just behind him with a heat-total of 6.66 points. Both the surfers headed into the next round of the competition. The third surfer in the heat, Jean
Sebastien Estie from Belgium, failed to make the Round 2 cut after finishing in third place with a heat-total of 6.40 points.
The surfing action continued at Les Dunes with the remaining heats of ASP 3-Star Protest Vendee Pro on Thursday.
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