Halley Batista and Marco Fernandez advance to Round 2 at San Miguel Pro Zarautz
Brazil’s Halley Batista and his fellow countryperson Marco Fernandez made the Round 2 (Round of 96) cut at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 6-Star San Miguel Pro Zarautz after claiming top honours in their respective Round 1 (Round of 144)
heats that went down at the main event site of Zarautz in Basque Country, Spain, on Tuesday, August 28.
Argentina’s Marcelo Rodriguez and France’s Adrien Valero accompanied the two winners into the next round after securing runner-up place in their respective heats as well.
The opening day of the competition promised to deliver a heavy dose of thrilling action as the up-and-coming talent from around the world had shown up at Zarautz to compete for a slice of the prize purse and coveted ASP ranking points that were on offer.
The 15th heat of Round 1 saw Batista take on his compatriot Bruno Rodriguez, Argentina’s Rodriguez and Australia’s Saxon Lumsden in a four-man battle for the Round 2 spot.
As the contest got underway, Batista got off to a decent start, putting in immense amount of effort to adapt to the demanding yet clean one-to-two foot waves on offer. The Brazilian surfer managed to score a 5.17 off his first business-wave and went on to
back it up with an additional 5.77-point ride, thus finishing with a heat-total of 10.94 points.
Marcelo made the Round 2 cut as well after finishing with a heat-total of 8.36 points, which comprised of a 3.50 and 4.30-point ride.
Bruno was unable to match the performance or the comfort of his rival during the heat and eventually finishing in third place with a heat-total of 7.80 points, while Lumsden had to settle for fourth place after registering a heat-total of 6.76 points.
The 16th heat saw Fernandez put on an impressive performance to get the better of his compatriot David do Carom, France’s Adrien Valero and Australia’s Ryan Callinan.
As the contest kicked-off, Fernandez went through a series of average wave-scores before stepping up to post a 6.33 on the score-board halfway through the heat. He immediately backed it up with another six-point ride, thus moving to a heat-total of 12.33
points. The score held up until the end to see him through to victory.
Valera accompanied the Brazilian surfer into the next round after landing in second place through a heat-total of 10.33 points, which included a 4.90 and 5.43-point ride.
Carom finished in third place with a two-wave total of 9.20 points, while Callinan had to settle for a heat-total of 8.17 points. Both the surfers were consequently removed from the contention for the event title.
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