Cristobal De Col and Chris Ward advance to Round 5 of ASP 4-Star Vans Pier Classic – Surfing News
Peru’s Cristobal De Col and America’s Chris Ward walked away with top honours from their respective Round 4 (Round of 64) heats of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Vans Pier Classic that continued at the Huntington Beach Pier in California,
America, on Friday, March 30.
The successful result served to add both De Col and Ward to the Round 5 (Round of 32) line-up. America’s Christian Saenz and Hawaii’s Evan Valiere advanced through into the next round of the competition as well after securing runner-up place in the fifth
and sixth heat respectively.
The surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event site turned out to be pretty challenging, offering clean medium-sized waves but at a really low frequency. This resulted in an intense battle as the surfers battled it out to get their hands on the scoring
opportunities.
Encountering Saenz, Brazil’s Ruda Carvalho and Puerto Rico’s Brian Toth in the fifth heat, De Col came up with an exquisite performance to steal the show.
The Peruvian surfer opened his account with a 7.00-point wave in the opening minutes of the heat and went on to add an additional 6.27 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 13.27 points.
Saenz finished behind De Col in runner-up place after collecting a couple of scores in the five-point range for a heat-total of 10.10 points.
Carvalho finished third with a heat-total of 9.57 points, whereas Toth rounded out the bottom position with a two-wave total of 6.44 points. Both the surfers consequently got eliminated from the competition.
The next heat pitted Ward against Hawaii’s Evan Valiere, Brazil’s Ian Gouveia and Japan’s Hiroto Arai.
The American surfer got off to a really modest start, scoring a mere 4.93 off his first business-wave halfway through the heat. Locking his second business-wave in the dying minutes of the four-man battle, Ward added an additional 5.77 points to his account
to get to a heat-total of 10.70 points. The score remained unbeatable to carry American off to victory.
Valiere finished in runner-up placer after finishing with a heat-total of 10.33 points, which included a 5.83 and 4.50-point wave.
Gouveia and Arai were unable to make a solid impact in the heat. The Brazilian surfer finished third with a heat-total of 9.66 points, whereas Arai rounded out the bottom position with a two-wave total of 8.47 points. The lacklustre performance by the two
surfers led to their elimination from the ASP 4-Star event.
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