Frederico Morais and Beyrick De Vries secure place in Round 4 of San Miguel Pro Zarautz
Portugal’s Frederico Morais and South Africa’s Beyrick De Vries stepped into the fourth round (Round of 24) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz after managing to grab top honours in their respective Round 3 (Round
of 48) heats that went down at the exotic event site of Zarautz in Basque Country, Spain, on Friday, August 31.
While Morais claimed the win in the 11th heat, Brazil’s Simao Romao finished right behind him in second place to successfully extend his life in the event. Costa Rica’s Carlos Munoz finished in third place, while Basque Country’s Norman Landa
had to settle for bottom position. Both the surfers got removed from the contention for the event title.
The 12th heat sent Australia’s Jay Thompson into the fourth round alongside De Vries after finishing in second place. Hawaii’s Keanu Asing finished in third place, while Brazil’s Felipe Toledo finished fourth. The bottom-two finish resulted in
their elimination from the competition.
The surfing conditions were not very friendly on the latest day of the ASP 6-Star event, with three-to-four foot waves accompanied by strong onshore winds prevailing at Zarautz. However, the surfers had no choice but to somehow adjust to what was on offer
if they wanted to hold on to their chance of getting their hands on the coveted ASP ranking points as well as a slice of the prize money.
Despite the demanding conditions, Morais held his nerve during the 11th heat, which pitted him against Romao, Munoz and Landa. The Portuguese surfer collected a 6.00 off his first business-wave halfway through the heat and went on to back it up
with another 6.93-point ride, thus finishing with a heat-total of 12.93 points.
Romao struggled to find his rhythm throughout the course of the event and eventually had to finish with a heat-total of 8.43 points, which comprised of a 4.33 and 4.10-point ride. The effort was just enough to keep him in contention for the event title.
Muniz finished in third place with a heat-total of 7.60 points, which Landa finished behind him with a two-wave total of 6.33 points.
The final heat of Round 3 saw De Vries square-off with Thompson, Asing and Toledo in the four-man battle for survival.
De Vries got off to a slow start, but eventually stepped up in the final minutes to post a 7.33 and 7.17 on the score-board, thus finishing with a winning heat-total of 14.50 points.
Thompson made the Round 4 cut as well after collecting a couple of scores in the five-point range, thus finishing with a heat-total of 11.27 points.
Asing finished in third place with a heat-total of 11.00 points, while Toledo had to settle for last place after registering a heat-total of 9.90 points.
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