Big sets continue to trouble surfers on day 1 of the ASP 3-Star Protest Vendee Pro
With the second round (Round of 96) of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 3-Star Protest Vendee Pro continuing at the main event site of La Sauzaie in Bretignolles-sur-Mer, France, on Thursday, April 19, the fans kept getting treated to a heavy
dose of intense surfing action.
Reunion Island’s Frederic Robin, Morocco’s Yassine Ramdani, France’s Roland Lefeuvre and his fellow countryperson Ian Fontaine successfully claimed top honours in their respective Round 2 heats to advance through into the third round (Round of 64) of the
competition.
The runner-up finish by Belgium’s Lars Musschoot, Sweden’s Timothy Latte, Spain’s Luis Rodriguez and France’s Pierre Rollet served to place them in the Round 3 line-up as well.
The opening day of the latest ASP 3-Star event was not being too kind to the surfers, putting the competition field comprising of both local and international talent in tricky four-to-five foot waves to determine who got to stay in contention for the event
title.
Reunion Island’s Robin continued his decent run of form on day 1 of the competition and managed to collect his second success of the day by prevailing over Musschoot, Portugal’s Diogo Appleton and France’s Olivier Papon in the 13th heat of Round
2 with a modest heat-total of 8.43 points.
The 25-year-old Musschoot struggled to navigate between big waves and thus only managed to get to a heat-total of 6.06 points. However, the effort proved sufficient to put him in runner-up place and thus carry him though into the next round.
“I was completely lost out there, there were waves everywhere!” commented Musschoot. “I looked at it and I saw a lot of right-handers breaking in the inside before my heat so I went out there looking for them but once I got there I felt just lost and didn’t
find anything! I’m pretty lucky to get through with two low scores, hopefully tomorrow the waves will be a bit better and I’ll surf better.”
Appleton and Papon got eliminated from the competition after scoring a heat-total of 3.56 and 0.70 points respectively to round out the bottom-two positions.
The 14th heat saw the local talent Lefeuvre claim a comprehensive victory over his rivals with a two-wave total of 8.73 points. Latte surprisingly made his way into the next round with a heat-total of 2.37 points.
Basque Country’s Ethan Egiguren and France’s Alexis Ortiz De Zara were forced to make a premature exit from the ASP 3-Star event after finishing with a heat-total of 2.10 and 0.93 points respectively.
Ramdani and Rodriguez successfully claimed the first-two positions in the 15th heat after scoring a heat-total of 6.80 and 6.53 points respectively, consequently making the Round 3 cut.
Italy’s Alessandro Demartinil and Norway’s Yoackim failed to squeeze anything significant out of the demanding waves on offer and thus found themselves exiting the competition field after finishing with a heat-total of Yoackim Guichard.
The final heat of Round 2 featured an all-French affair, with Fontaine and Rollet advancing through with a heat-total of 8.53 and 7.83 points, whereas their compatriots Charly Quivront and Titouan Deffarges getting eliminated from the event after finishing
with a heat-total of 7.33 and 3.86 points.
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