Lucas Santamaria and Eala Stewart qualify for Arica World Star Tour semi-finals
Argentina’s Lucas Santamaria and Hawaii’s Eala Stewart successfully advanced into the semi-finals at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 3-Star Maui and Sons Arica World Star Tour after claiming top honours in their respective quarter-finals that
went down at El Gringo in Arica, Chile, on Sunday, June 17.
The first quarter-final saw Santamaria put on an impressive performance to get the better of Brazil’s Ian Gouveia in order to secure his place in the next stage of the competition while removing his rival from the competition field.
Stewart barely managed to defeat Chile’s Manuel Selman in the second quarter-final, consequently advancing into the semi-finals while eliminating the latter from the contention for the event title.
The final day of the latest ASP 3-Star event got underway in perfect barrels that lay in the three-to-six foot range, offering a great deal of opportunities to the surfers to put their skills on display.
The first Quarter-final saw Santamaria take on Gouveia in a man-on-man battle for the semi-final slot. Both the surfers had been on a roll since the start of the competition and were expected come hard at each other during their quarter-final clash.
As the first Quarter-final got underway, Santamaria got down to business right away and locked a juicy barrel in the opening minutes of the heat to post a 7.75 on the score-board. He went through a few mediocre waves before collecting a 4.40-point ride to
move to a heat-total of 12.15 points.
Gouveia, in response, took his time during the early stages of the heat to adjust to the conditions. Making a charge after passing the halfway stage, the Brazilian surfer collected an 8.00-point wave, but got called for interference, leaving him to rely
on just one score for qualification into the next round. He ended up scoring an 8.10 off his sole business-wave to finish 4.05 points short of his rival, consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The second Quarter-final featured a thrilling affair, with both Stewart and Selman putting on a spectacular show for the crowd.
The Hawaiian surfer exhibited his barrel-riding skills halfway through the skills to earn a perfect 10 from the judges and immediately backed it up with a 9.75-point ride to reach a heat-total of 19.75 points.
Selman was nothing short of phenomenal during the course of the battle. Scoring a 9.30 off his first business-wave and backing it up with a 9.45-point wave, the local surfer finished with a heat-total of 18.75 points. However, despite his remarkable performance,
Selman was forced to leave the competition field.
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